Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role the independent sector can play in supporting the development of NHS Online.

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

NHS Online, launching in 2027, will be a publicly owned National Health Service organisation, giving patients on certain pathways the choice of getting the specialist care they need from their home. It will offer the latest innovations in digital healthcare, nationally scaled for the benefit of patients in every part of the country, helping to reduce patient waiting times through delivering the equivalent of up to 8.5 million appointments and assessments in its first three years.

The Government recognises the role independent sector providers have in supporting the NHS as trusted partners to recover elective services by using additional capacity to tackle the backlog whilst delivering value for money.

The NHS Online programme is actively engaging with both NHS organisations and the independent sector, including through representative bodies such as the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, to support the development of NHS Online.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how the Keep Britain Working Review will help to incentivise businesses of all sizes to support the health and wellbeing of their employees.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Through the next phase of Keep Britain Working we will work with businesses of all sizes to design solutions which support the health and wellbeing of employees across the UK. Through employer-led sprints, we are developing a Healthy Working Lifecycle Standard, tailored workplace health support, and stronger evidence on the business benefits of investing in employee wellbeing.

Our Vanguard group includes over 120 employers of varying sizes to ensure the approaches developed reflect the needs and realities of both large employers and SMEs. We are also working closely with regional authorities and leadership to connect the programme to smaller employers across the country.

During the Keep Britain Working review, we heard that employers are already bearing the cost of sickness absence and employees leaving the workforce and are therefore highly incentivised to support the health and wellbeing of their employees. Through the next phase of Keep Britain Working we will grow the evidence for what works and where additional incentives could have the greatest impact, ensuring that support is targeted in ways that encourage employers to take-up effective workplace health measures.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to prioritise rare cancers research in the next round of National Institute for Health and Care Research funding allocations; and what proportion of the overall cancer research budget will be allocated to (1) brain, (2) liver, (3) stomach, (4) pancreatic, and (5) oesophageal, cancers.

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.

The Government will implement the Rare Cancers Act to make it easier for clinical trials on rare cancers to take place in England.

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 steps they are taking to implement the automatic patient contact system for clinical trial participation introduced as part of the Rare Cancers Act 2026 to enable the timely identification and contact of patients diagnosed with less survivable cancers; and what safeguards they will put in place to prevent delays in that contact system that could exclude eligible patients from participation in clinical trials.

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 from the National Disease Registration Service to the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Be Part of Research registry tool. A detailed workplan and continued engagement with the Hon. Member Dr Scott Arthur, the bill sponsor in the House of Commons, will safeguard against delays which could impact the project.

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 what assessment they have made of the Competition and Markets Authority's finding of excessive and unfair pricing in the supply of liothyronine tablets in the UK; and what progress they have made in discussions with manufacturers to reduce the cost of liothyronine.

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

There has been no assessment made of the Competition and Markets Authority’s findings, but no company should exploit the National Health Service. Anti-competitive behaviour, including excessive pricing, is a matter for the Competition and Markets Authority.

There have been no discussions with the manufacturers of Liothyronine regarding the cost of the product because the Government’s policy on generic medicines is to allow suppliers freedom of pricing for their products, relying on competition between suppliers and efficient purchasing by community pharmacies to deliver value for money for the NHS. This also means that companies can increase their prices when supply is low, or demand is high.

Several marketing authorisations for different suppliers have been granted for generic liothyronine since 2016, the NHS reimbursement price in primary care has reduced, and the price remains firmly below its peak from 2018.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they are making to facilitate data sharing between the NHS and the independent sector.

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

Information standards relating to information technology will enable the interoperability needed for information to be shared easily between the National Health Service and the independent sector.

The Health and Care Act 2022 made several changes to the information standard provisions of the 2012 act which will strengthen information standards for the health and adult social care system, including extending their scope to include private health and care providers and making compliance with standards mandatory. These provisions have now commenced.

The Single Patient Record will, in the future, be central to our vision for data within the NHS and social care. A seamlessly connected NHS where trusted data flows securely across all care settings, empowering patients, enabling clinicians with real-time insights, and unlocking breakthroughs in genomics, improve outcomes, and reduce inequalities. We will require public and private health and social care providers and their IT suppliers to share health and adult social care information with the Single Patient Record.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address regional disparities in thyroid treatment, particularly variations in prescribing liothyronine between different integrated care boards.

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

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for supporting appropriate prescribing in their areas, taking account of this guidance and individual clinical circumstances.

National Health Service regions cascaded the Items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care policy guidance, which includes a reference to liothyronine, to ICBs.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to build trust in digital healthcare.

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

The Government recognises the importance of building trust in digital health systems and how critical this is to retaining public confidence. As part of its 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is providing a digitisation programme that supports National Health Service frontline clinicians and patients in improving outcomes and delivering care efficiently, effectively, and safely across the system.

The Government has also worked with NHS stakeholders and the public to ensure that the changes made respect privacy and confidentiality and maintain trust in the system. To help better understand the public's views, we carried out a series of engagement events, the reports for which were published online.

Our other initiatives include a revised NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit which allows the NHS to assess their performance against national security standards and the development of secure data environments to help ensure that research and analysis requiring NHS data is done in a way that is protected, auditable, and which maintains privacy.

The training of NHS staff so that they are digitally confident and have skills in modern leadership and innovation, is another priority.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many notifications NHS England has received under section 4.1.8 of the Data Sharing Framework version 2.03, or equivalent textual clauses in earlier versions, in (1) 2023, (2) 2024, (3) 2025, and (4) 2026.

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

Since 2023, NHS England has received the following number of data breach notifications from data recipients under section 4.1.8 of the Data Sharing Framework:

- from March 2023, when NHS Digital and NHS England merged, to December 2023 there were zero;

- in 2024 there were three;

- in 2025 there were five; and

- in 2026 there were two.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 16 February (HL14437), what evidence they have reviewed on the economic value and cost-effectiveness of point-of-care diagnostic testing technologies for cardiovascular disease prevention.

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

We recognise the value of point-of-care diagnostics in enabling earlier detection, reducing avoidable hospital admissions, and supporting more personalised care.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has produced clinical guidelines and heath technology guidance which make recommendations on the use of point-of-care testing (POCT) for a range of conditions and diseases. Decisions as to whether NICE will create new, or update existing, guidance are overseen by a prioritisation board, chaired by NICE’s Chief Medical Officer.

Decisions on the use and implementation of POCT are made locally by integrated care boards and providers, who design services in line with local population health needs and priorities.

The Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Modern Service Framework will be published later this year and will prioritise ambitious, evidence-led, and clinically informed approaches to prevention, treatment, and care. As part of its development, we are engaging widely to identify and consider the role of emerging innovations across the CVD pathway.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Merron on 9 March (HL Deb col 9), what steps they plan to take to ensure the integration of care between the proposed National Care Service and the National Health Service.

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

The Government is committed to ensuring joined up health and care services. While the Independent Commission will inform the long-term direction of a national care service, the Government is already progressing reforms to strengthen the join up between services, so people experience more integrated and person-centred care.

We are developing Neighbourhood Health Services, which will allow more integrated working within the National Health Service, as well as between the NHS, local government, and a wide range of public services, including the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector. The National Care Service and the Neighbourhood Health Service will play a critical role in helping people stay independent for longer, minimising the time that they need to spend in hospital or in long-term residential care.

Alongside this, we are improving national data and digital infrastructure, including driving the adoption of digital and social care records so people get the right care quicker, without needing to repeat their care needs or medical history.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish separate, individual-level performance data for (1) brain, (2) liver, (3) lung, (4) stomach, (5) pancreatic, and (6) oesophageal, cancers under the Get Data Out programme.

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

Improving outcomes for rare cancer patients is a priority for the National Cancer Plan. The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) in NHS England, as the national cancer registry, collects diagnosis, treatment, and outcome data on cancer patients in England. All these cancer sites, such as brain, liver, lung, stomach, pancreatic, and oesophageal, are already included in NDRS’ Get Data Out (GDO) programme. Performance data is not included in GDO but incidence, treatment, survival, and routes to diagnosis statistics are available for the clinically meaningful groups of cancers included.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to allowing children and young people with non-malignant conditions who travel long distances to receive stem cell transplants and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy access to the young cancer patient travel fund announced as part of the National Cancer Plan for England, published on 4 February.

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

The commitment to fund travel costs of up to £10 million per year to support children and young people with cancer is a key priority for the National Cancer Plan.

The Department is currently working with its partners to define the scope and parameters of the scheme and further detail will be announced in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 23 February (HL14441), what assessment they have made of the impact of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on generalised anxiety and panic disorder on access to treatment for marginalised groups.

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

The Department has made no assessment of the impact of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on generalised anxiety and panic disorder or on access to treatment for marginalised groups.

NICE keeps its published guidelines under active surveillance and decisions on whether they should be updated in light of new evidence are taken by the NICE prioritisation board in line with its published prioritisation framework. NICE’s prioritisation board will be considering whether the guideline on generalised anxiety and panic disorder should be updated following a letter from the UK Council for Psychotherapy.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the NHS new-born blood spot programme; and what steps they have taken to bring the UK in line with other European countries on the number of conditions screened for.

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

The NHS Newborn Blood Spot Programme consistently achieves very high coverage with the most recent figure at 98% in Quarter 2 of 2025/26. This not only indicates that eligible babies are being screened, but also that conclusive results are recorded on the Child Health Information Service system before or at 17 days of age, indicating that the programme is effective at reaching almost the entire eligible population and delivering results early enough to influence outcomes.

Coverage of babies who move into the area after birth is lower at 83%, so the programme is less effective for this subgroup, but numbers are much smaller.

A total of 570,865 babies were screened in 2024/25, demonstrating the programme is operating effectively at scale, and the system is robust enough to deliver screening across a large cohort.

Over one million babies have been screened for severe combined immunodeficiency since the launch of the in-service evaluation (ISE) in 2017. NHS England’s report on the 30-month ISE evaluation period found that screening detected 10 babies with the condition who would otherwise have gone undetected until infections developed, thus preventing serious illness.

It is important to note that comparisons of screening programmes with other health systems can be misleading. Some countries or regions reportedly screen for a condition when it is only at the pilot or research stage. Some ‘screening programmes’ just test for a condition rather than being end-to-end quality-assured programmes that include diagnosis, treatment, and care. And screening in some countries is delivered regionally, or even just by individual hospitals, rather than nationally. They are therefore not directly comparable to the national screening programmes offered in the United Kingdom.

For very rare conditions it is difficult to generate robust evidence to demonstrate the value of screening, because so few babies are affected. The UK National Screening Committee, which advises the Government on all screening matters, is working with experts and partner organisations to look at how to make it easier to develop the evidence needed to make robust recommendations on the addition of more rare diseases to the NHS Newborn Blood Spot Programme.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the letter from Baroness Merron to Lord Kamall on 19 February (DEP2026-0132), which regions are at capacity for delivering properly supervised medical speciality training posts.

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

Training capacity varies by specialty, geography and programme size. It is dynamic and is assessed on a case-by-case basis by NHS England when allocating places. It is therefore not possible to provide a stable assessment of capacity within any regions.

When creating new places, NHS England will work with providers and local health systems to ensure that they continue to be of an appropriately high quality, so that doctors have the education and training they need to provide high quality patient care.

Regions will only be allocated new places if they have sufficient training capacity and can meet training quality standards.