Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the National Cancer Plan for England, published on 4 February, how the £200 million funding for sustainable improvements to cancer delivery will be distributed; and how Cancer Alliances will be able to access that funding.

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

The National Cancer Plan, published in February 2026, announced that £200 million in 2026 to 2027 has been ring fenced for Cancer Alliances to support them in making sustainable improvements to cancer delivery, as part of system development funding (SDF).

Cancer SDF comprises of two allocations: place-based, which is provided to all Alliances on a fair-shares basis for local population needs; and targeted, which is provided to Alliances for targeted projects, with amounts determined by agreed run rates. Cancer Alliances must demonstrate how their spending reduces disparities and improves access to care.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the name and job title of the individual with overall leadership and accountability for all brain cancer activities and outcomes across NHS England and arm’s-length bodies, including the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

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

The Department invests over £1.7 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In December 2025, the NIHR announced an initial £13.7 million investment in the Brain Tumour Research Consortium. In January 2026, the NIHR announced further investment of a minimum of £11.7 million in the consortium through funding of work packages. This brings the total investment to over £25 million.

The exact amount paid as of March 2026 is £50,000, which was paid to the contractor on 31 December 2025. This payment was made to support start up activities for the consortium. The NIHR does not currently hold up-to-date expenditure, or a detailed breakdown of how this funding has been spent. This information is currently held by the research team of the NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium and will be provided to the NIHR in the future as part of the project’s annual financial returns.

For all awards, contracting and further payments are contingent upon teams submitting and reviewing detailed costs and, if applicable, agreeing to the suggested amendments and requests for clarification which are currently in progress.

Future payments will be issued over the period of the award contracts, which range from five to 10 years, as per the schedule of payments agreed between the NIHR and the consortium.

Information on all awards will be made publicly available in due course. The NIHR is working to ensure that new investments can get up and running as soon as possible. Oversight of the Brain Tumour Research Consortium is the responsibility of the NIHR.

In addition, the NIHR continues to strongly encourage brain cancer research applications through its regular funding opportunities.

The National Cancer Plan, published on the 4 February 2026, sets out several commitments and ambitions, to be delivered within the next 10 years. The role of the reformed National Cancer Board will be to support and monitor the delivery of the commitments and ambitions and provide regular updates to ministers.

To hold us accountable across these commitments, and to drive forward progress for rare cancer patients, we will appoint a National Clinical Lead for Rare Cancers, who will provide independent advice on improving outcomes.

Until the appointment is made, NHS England’s Clinical Advisory Group has leads for specific rare cancers to provide NHS England and the Department with clinical advice. Professor Lucy Chappell, the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser, is the Chief Executive Officer for the NIHR.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total funding they have committed publicly to the National Institute for Health and Care Research Brain Tumour Consortium; when and where those funding commitments have been published; and how much of that funding has been (1) allocated, (2) approved, (3) paid, and (4) spent to date.

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

The Department invests over £1.7 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In December 2025, the NIHR announced an initial £13.7 million investment in the Brain Tumour Research Consortium. In January 2026, the NIHR announced further investment of a minimum of £11.7 million in the consortium through funding of work packages. This brings the total investment to over £25 million.

The exact amount paid as of March 2026 is £50,000, which was paid to the contractor on 31 December 2025. This payment was made to support start up activities for the consortium. The NIHR does not currently hold up-to-date expenditure, or a detailed breakdown of how this funding has been spent. This information is currently held by the research team of the NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium and will be provided to the NIHR in the future as part of the project’s annual financial returns.

For all awards, contracting and further payments are contingent upon teams submitting and reviewing detailed costs and, if applicable, agreeing to the suggested amendments and requests for clarification which are currently in progress.

Future payments will be issued over the period of the award contracts, which range from five to 10 years, as per the schedule of payments agreed between the NIHR and the consortium.

Information on all awards will be made publicly available in due course. The NIHR is working to ensure that new investments can get up and running as soon as possible. Oversight of the Brain Tumour Research Consortium is the responsibility of the NIHR.

In addition, the NIHR continues to strongly encourage brain cancer research applications through its regular funding opportunities.

The National Cancer Plan, published on the 4 February 2026, sets out several commitments and ambitions, to be delivered within the next 10 years. The role of the reformed National Cancer Board will be to support and monitor the delivery of the commitments and ambitions and provide regular updates to ministers.

To hold us accountable across these commitments, and to drive forward progress for rare cancer patients, we will appoint a National Clinical Lead for Rare Cancers, who will provide independent advice on improving outcomes.

Until the appointment is made, NHS England’s Clinical Advisory Group has leads for specific rare cancers to provide NHS England and the Department with clinical advice. Professor Lucy Chappell, the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser, is the Chief Executive Officer for the NIHR.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how they reconcile publicly announced funding for the National Institute for Health and Care Research Brain Tumour Consortium with funding paid to date; and when further information on funding will be published.

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

The Department invests over £1.7 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In December 2025, the NIHR announced an initial £13.7 million investment in the Brain Tumour Research Consortium. In January 2026, the NIHR announced further investment of a minimum of £11.7 million in the consortium through funding of work packages. This brings the total investment to over £25 million.

The exact amount paid as of March 2026 is £50,000, which was paid to the contractor on 31 December 2025. This payment was made to support start up activities for the consortium. The NIHR does not currently hold up-to-date expenditure, or a detailed breakdown of how this funding has been spent. This information is currently held by the research team of the NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium and will be provided to the NIHR in the future as part of the project’s annual financial returns.

For all awards, contracting and further payments are contingent upon teams submitting and reviewing detailed costs and, if applicable, agreeing to the suggested amendments and requests for clarification which are currently in progress.

Future payments will be issued over the period of the award contracts, which range from five to 10 years, as per the schedule of payments agreed between the NIHR and the consortium.

Information on all awards will be made publicly available in due course. The NIHR is working to ensure that new investments can get up and running as soon as possible. Oversight of the Brain Tumour Research Consortium is the responsibility of the NIHR.

In addition, the NIHR continues to strongly encourage brain cancer research applications through its regular funding opportunities.

The National Cancer Plan, published on the 4 February 2026, sets out several commitments and ambitions, to be delivered within the next 10 years. The role of the reformed National Cancer Board will be to support and monitor the delivery of the commitments and ambitions and provide regular updates to ministers.

To hold us accountable across these commitments, and to drive forward progress for rare cancer patients, we will appoint a National Clinical Lead for Rare Cancers, who will provide independent advice on improving outcomes.

Until the appointment is made, NHS England’s Clinical Advisory Group has leads for specific rare cancers to provide NHS England and the Department with clinical advice. Professor Lucy Chappell, the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser, is the Chief Executive Officer for the NIHR.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to reviewing the national commissioning model for high cost, high impact medical devices.

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

The NHS Payment Scheme (NHSPS) and the National Commissioning model for high cost, high impact medical devices look to review the appropriate commissioning model for such devices. They ensure patients can access clinically effective high-cost devices, while maintaining consistency across England and ensuring the responsible use of public funds. They are kept under constant review to ensure it reflects clinical evidence, innovation, and National Health Service priorities.

Where devices are particularly high cost, clinically specialised, or used only for defined patient groups, they may be excluded from the national tariff. High-cost device exclusions are kept under regular review by NHS England as part of the annual NHSPS development process. Where a device becomes more routinely used, its cost reduces, or it can reasonably be absorbed into standard prices, NHS England may consider removing the exclusion and bundling the device into the national tariff. Conversely, exclusions may be introduced where new technologies are high cost, used for limited patient cohorts, or present material financial risk. Any proposed changes are consulted on publicly and confirmed through publication of the NHSPS.

Some high-cost devices are also subject to NHS England’s Specialised Services Devices Programme. This applies to devices used in specialised services that are commissioned nationally, often for patients with complex or rare conditions. The programme provides a structured process to assess clinical effectiveness, patient benefit, affordability, and system impact before devices are routinely commissioned. Where approved, NHS England may introduce national commissioning policies, central procurement arrangements, or national pricing agreements, with funding aligned to specialised commissioning while operating alongside the NHSPS.

For devices not covered by either national prices or exclusions, the NHSPS allows local pricing agreements, provided these adhere to national pricing rules and principles on efficiency, transparency, and value for money.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce emergency admissions for heart valve disease through earlier diagnosis and timely elective intervention.

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

In April 2025, NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme introduced a nationally standardised eight-week treatment pathway for patients with severe aortic stenosis, which is an advanced heart valve disease. This system-level reform targets persistent delays between diagnosis and intervention for aortic stenosis, to reduce emergency admissions.

To improve awareness of heart valve disease in primary care and to aid in diagnosis, NHS England commissioned the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society in 2024 to develop a referral form to support the investigation of heart valve disease.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many inpatient procedures have been completed in each month from 2024 to 2026; what assessment they have made of the contribution of robotic-assisted procedures to achieving the target of 65 per cent of patients waiting less than 18 weeks for elective care; and what data they hold on current waiting lists for robotic procedures.

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

Monthly inpatient procedure data is published regularly as part of the Hospital Episode Statistics for Admitted Patient Care, Outpatient and Accident and Emergency dataset. The number of finished consultant episodes with a procedure from January 2024 to February 2026 is included in the table below. Whilst the data is published, it is provisional and may be incomplete or contain errors for which no adjustments have yet been made. Counts produced from provisional data are likely to be lower than those generated for the same period in the final dataset. This shortfall will be most pronounced in the final month of the latest period, in this case February 2026. The following table shows the number of inpatient finished consultant episodes for each month from 2024 to February 2026:

Source: Provisional Monthly Hospital Episode Statistics for Admitted Patient Care, Outpatient and Accident and Emergency data, NHS England.

No formal assessment has currently been made on the contribution of robotic-assisted procedures to achieving the March 2026 target of 65% of patient pathways waiting less than 18 weeks to start first treatment.

The Elective Reform Plan, January 2025, outlined the productivity and modernisation efforts needed to restore 18-week referral-to-treatment standards. We will continue to utilise widespread advances in techniques and technology, including robotic surgery to deliver higher quality care sooner. In February 2026, performance against the standard for 92% of patients to start first treatment within 18 weeks of referral was 62.6%, 3.4% higher than a year earlier.

Data on the current waiting list for pathways involving robotic procedures is not held in the format requested.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 29 January (HL13472), what assessment they have made of the growth potential for the probiotics sector if such products were permitted to be labelled and marketed as probiotics, rather than alternative descriptors such as gut health.

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

Decisions are made on the basis of robust scientific evidence. The Department has not assessed the growth potential of the probiotics sector if products containing live bacteria were permitted to be labelled and marketed as probiotics.

Industry can apply to have nutrition and health claims authorised through an established process which is set out in the Department’s published guidance, available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nutrition-and-health-claims-guidance-to-compliance-with-regulation-ec-1924-2006-on-nutrition-and-health-claims-made-on-foods/nutrition-and-health-claims-guidance-to-compliance-with-regulation-ec-19242006

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve awareness of heart valve disease among primary care professionals to support earlier diagnosis.

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

In April 2025, NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme introduced a nationally standardised eight-week treatment pathway for patients with severe aortic stenosis, which is an advanced heart valve disease. This system-level reform targets persistent delays between diagnosis and intervention for aortic stenosis, to reduce emergency admissions.

To improve awareness of heart valve disease in primary care and to aid in diagnosis, NHS England commissioned the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society in 2024 to develop a referral form to support the investigation of heart valve disease.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to make the decision-making process and criteria of the Specialised Services Devices Programme publicly available.

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

Whether a device category is excluded from tariffs and within the commissioning responsibility of NHS England is not determined by the Specialised Services Devices Programme (SSDP).

Any individual can nominate a device or device category to be excluded from tariffs. The description of this annual nomination process can be found on the NHS.UK website. Once this process is completed, feedback is shared with the person who has made the nomination. Inclusion on the High Cost Devices tab within the NHS Payment Scheme Workbook with the commissioning responsibility identified as NHS England indicates that a device category is included on SSDP.

In line with contractual terms included within the NHS Standard Contract, all devices eligible for reimbursement must be purchased through NHS Supply Chain. Therefore, all products reimbursed must also be eligible for purchase through this route. Individual devices agreed for reimbursement are assessed by SSDP, working with NHS Supply Chain and frontline clinicians using a process which has been widely communicated to industry suppliers and was extensively tested with the Association of British Healthtech Industry. This process considers a number of factors, including high quality clinical evidence, comparative costs, and affordability. This process supports suppliers to provide information and evidence in a consistent format for further evaluation. There is an intention to publish this process on the NHS England website.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards achieving the commitment to develop a community pharmacy offer for HPV catch-up vaccination from 2026, as set out in the 10 Year Health Plan; and when it expects to issue further guidance to Integrated Care Boards on this.

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

The Government is committed to improving vaccine uptake and access across all immunisation programmes by exploring new and innovative delivery models, including expanding routes such as community pharmacies, as set out in the NHS Vaccination Strategy and the 10-Year Health Plan for England.

The Department is working with the UK Health Security Agency and NHS England to develop options for delivering human papilloma virus catch-up vaccination through community pharmacies, with the ambition to increase uptake among younger adults who have left school, supporting our aim to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040. Further guidance on roll-out plans will be published in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Learning Maternity System programme developed by Mykos.

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.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the repercussions of the abolition of NHS England on the operation of Section 7A of the National Health Service Act 2006 with respect to public health commissioning for vaccinations.

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.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 4 March (HL14724), whether NHS England has provided guidance to integrated care boards in the current planning round to include robotic assisted surgery adoption trajectories in their operational plans; what monitoring arrangements are in place to assess uptake and implementation by NHS trusts of the guidance Implementation of robotic assisted surgery in England, published in July 2025; and what is meant by "regional alliances" in the context of robotic assisted surgery expansion.

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

The Department and NHS England are working with senior leaders across the health system, including integrated care boards (ICBs), to make sure that procurement of surgical robotic platforms supports innovation, transparency and long-term value.

No guidance has been provided to ICBs at this stage, but equity of access remains a key consideration. The Department and NHS England are working with regional partners to understand how robotics can be deployed in a way that supports equity, productivity and population need. Regional alliances refer to Cancer Alliances, which look at the care and support patients should expect to receive from diagnosis to follow-up across their whole area, so they can address variation and implement best practice. NHS England provides Cancer Alliances with funding for cancer to assist in their work.

Decisions on the procurement of robotic-assisted surgery are made locally by National Health Service trusts and ICBs, in line with local need and national guidance. No specific targets or monitoring arrangements have been set in relation to uptake or implementation of the July 2025 Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) guidance. However, a baseline assessment is being undertaken to understand the current provision of robotic assisted surgery 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.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the number of deaths from anorexia nervosa recorded by the Office of National Statistics is in line with the mortality rates suggested by clinical prevalence data; and, if there is a disparity between the two, what assessment they have made of the reasons why.

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

The Office for National Statistics’ mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration on death certificates and would be the most accurate source for the information. For this reason, the Department has not made an assessment of the number of deaths from anorexia nervosa.

However, the Government shares concerns about the accurate recording of deaths, including when eating disorders may have been a contributing factor. The statutory medical examiner and coroner systems provide a clear framework to ensure deaths are appropriately investigated and recorded, so that lessons are identified and patient safety is strengthened.

Ultimately, the Ministry of Justice owns coroner policy, and it is for the coroner, exercising independent judicial discretion, to determine what is recorded on the medical cause of death.

Accurate recording does matter, and we will continue to work with partners, including colleagues at the Ministry of Justice, to ensure that learning is captured and reflected in improvements to care.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which the NHS vaccination strategy has delivered on its commitment to provide a more joined-up prevention and vaccination offer for local populations.

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

The NHS Vaccination Strategy aims to increase uptake across the population, particularly in underserved groups, through more accessible, locally delivered services supported by national consistency in standards and digital systems. It promotes convenient access through primary care and community settings, alongside a more integrated approach where multiple vaccinations and wider health interventions can be offered together. Specific actions already delivered under the NHS Vaccination Strategy to improve the vaccination offer include the following:

• every integrated care board now having a board-level vaccination lead with structured plans to boost uptake in their area;
• introducing a new digital service to improve data capture, flow, and reporting of vaccination data and the visibility of vaccination history for health professionals in maternity settings;
• piloting a new digital service, MyVaccines, that will enable individuals to review vaccination record and book appointments on the NHS App;
• dedicated funding in place to support targeted outreach to underserved communities, supported by sharing of learning and good practice on effective engagement and trust building interventions;
• community pharmacies delivering flu vaccinations to two and three-year-olds as a pilot in the 2025/26 season;
• making respiratory syncytial virus vaccines for all eligible cohorts and pertussis vaccine for pregnant women available via selected community pharmacies in underserved areas;
• requiring general practices to focus on maternal pertussis vaccinations in 2024/25 and on human papillomavirus vaccinations in 2025/26 through their annual vaccination campaign;
• from 2025/26, the item of service fee for delivery of routine childhood vaccinations was increased for general practices to £12.06;
• in line with the strategy and the Government’s commitment a pilot programme has also been rolled out to explore delivery of childhood vaccinations by health visiting teams, expanding the offer available to families; and
• the introduction of a National Health Service owned end to end digital service for school age immunisation services (SAIS). In addition, Manage a vaccination in schools is a digital tool being rolled out on a phased basis to help SAIS teams vaccinate more children, more easily.

These measures demonstrate clear progress towards a more joined-up prevention and vaccination offer for local populations, particularly through local commissioning, broader delivery models, and digital capability. As many of these initiatives remain in development, the full extent of their impact is still emerging.

Building on this, the 10-Year Health Plan reinforces the shift towards prevention and digital access, including expanding the role of community pharmacies, introducing new delivery models for underserved groups, and improving access through the NHS App.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the timeliness and quality of vaccination coverage data reported by UK Health Security Agency, including in relation to the HPV and maternal RSV vaccination programmes.

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

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works with partners in NHS England to process, validate, and publish new data, where available, to improve monitoring of national vaccine programmes through the publication of reliable statistics. UKHSA constantly undertakes reviews of the quality and timeliness of the data published, assessing the quality of the source data against the data quality dimensions in The Government Data Quality Framework, publishing quality and methodology reports alongside the data reports.

The Government Data Quality Framework, the Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) QMI report, which outlines the quality and methodology information relevant to the RSV official statistics releases, and the Quality and methodology information: human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine coverage estimates in England are all available on the GOV.UK website.