Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will require integrated care boards to provide sustainable funding for successful pilot projects on type 1 diabetes and eating disorders to enable them to become regional centres of excellence.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has provided up to £1.5 million a year for the five current Type 1 Disordered Eating pilots for three years. This funding is transferred to integrated care boards on an annual basis and in 2025/26 has been ringfenced.
Decisions on funding for future years have yet to be taken.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will work with diabetes and eating disorder charities to support national campaigns aimed at reducing stigmatisation of type 1 diabetes and eating disorders (T1DE) in the media, drawing on NHS England's Language Matters guidance.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The national diabetes programme works closely with charity partners including Diabetes UK who take a multi-pronged approach to reducing stigma experienced by those with all types of diabetes. This includes raising awareness of the complex and serious nature of type 1 diabetes, including type 1 disordered eating (T1DE), providing support to those that experience stigma, and supporting research into stigma and how it can be reduced or prevented.
NHS England is partnering with the National Institute for Health and Care Research to deliver a qualitative evaluation of the five current T1DE pilot sites. A core element of this approach has been engagement with service users to understand their experiences of having the condition, both before and during their involvement with the T1DE service.
The National Diabetes Experience Survey led by NHS England is a further mechanism for understanding the experiences of those living with type 1 diabetes including T1DE to inform national and local approaches to improvement.
In response to feedback on the experiences of people of all ages who live with diabetes, NHS England published the document, Language Matters: language and diabetes, a guide for health care professionals which sets out the good practice principles for interactions with people living with diabetes including around reducing stigma. The guide is available on the NHS website in an online-only format.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to raise awareness of type 1 diabetes and eating disorders (T1DE) among healthcare professionals in diabetes and eating disorder services; and whether they plan to establish a national framework for preventing T1DE, including risk screening tools for use in clinical practice.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is currently funding five Type 1 Disordered Eating (T1DE) Pilots, with the aim of increasing understanding of the characteristics and care needs of people with T1DE, assessing the feasibility of the service delivery model and build the evidence base for an integrated diabetes and mental health pathway.
Pilot sites are delivering a national high level service specification alongside testing local novel approaches to improving care including to awareness raising of the condition amongst both diabetes and eating disorder health care professionals.
A national evaluation is currently underway to assess the impact of the five current pilot services. NHS England will review the evaluation findings to understand further opportunities to promote awareness of Type 1 disordered eating amongst healthcare professionals.
NHS England works alongside its partners to support the delivery of key messages around diabetes education and awareness. This includes through a digital diabetes platform which is developing educational resources for T1DE.
No assessment has been made of the merits of creating a national framework.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will support the creation of an international symposium of experts on type 1 diabetes and eating disorders to share best practice and guidance on diagnosis and treatment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the merits of creating an international symposium of experts on type 1 diabetes and eating disorders. NHS England is currently funding five Type 1 Disordered Eating (T1DE) pilots, with the aim of increasing understanding of the characteristics and care needs of people with T1DE, assessing the feasibility of the service delivery model and build the evidence base for an integrated diabetes and mental health pathway.
A national evaluation is currently underway to assess the impact of the five current pilot services. NHS England will review the evaluation findings to understand further opportunities to promote awareness of T1DE amongst healthcare professionals.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have held with social media companies on the moderation of pro-eating disorder material and misinformation relating to diabetes and body image.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Government’s Online Safety Act, all in-scope services are now required to protect their users from illegal content, and platforms likely to be accessed by children need to prevent their users from accessing eating disorder content.
No discussions have been held with social media companies. However, we are working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Ofcom and others as the Online Safety Act takes effect. This includes exploring further opportunities to address harmful pro-eating disorder material and misinformation shared on social media and websites.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Yorkshire Cancer Research’s ROSE model for research funding; and whether this model will be included the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan will seek to ensure equitable access to the benefits of health research, as set out by Yorkshire Cancer Research’s ROSE model. The Department invests in research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care including cancer. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Welcoming applications on cancer 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. In line with prior commitments, the Department has increased funding for NIHR research infrastructure schemes delivering cancer research outside the Greater South East, including biomedical research centres, clinical research facilities, and HealthTech research centres.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they are working with NHS England to ensure equitable access to diabetes innovations, particularly for patients from disadvantaged and ethnic minority backgrounds.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is working at a national level on behalf of the Department as part of a wider equality monitoring review programme. This review is exploring how best to update equality monitoring arrangements, including ethnicity categories, by reference to the protected characteristics outlined in the Equality Act 2010.
The National Diabetes Audit (NDA) is a major national clinical audit, which measures the effectiveness of diabetes healthcare against National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) clinical guidelines and NICE quality standards, in England and Wales. This includes NICE’s guidance on diabetes innovations like continuous glucose monitors and hybrid closed loop systems. The NDA is delivered by NHS England, in partnership with Diabetes UK.
The NDA consistently reveals inequalities in diabetes care and outcomes across different socioeconomic and demographic groups. People living in more deprived areas, younger individuals, and some ethnic minorities experience poorer access to care processes and treatment targets compared to their counterparts in less deprived areas and among older individuals.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the NHS 10 Year Health Plan for England, what assessment they have made of opportunities to identify genetic risk for diabetes, and what plans they have to implement that genetic testing as part of the shift to diabetes prevention.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service, in partnership with Our Future Health, will trial the use of Integrated Risk Scores, which combine genomic data with lifestyle and other non-biological risk factors, within neighbourhood health services. This partnership will generate important evidence to inform whether, and how, integrated risk scores could be used more widely in the NHS. The partnership will initially focus on cardiovascular disease but is set to expand to include diabetes, breast cancer, glaucoma, and osteoporosis. This work represents a significant step towards embedding genetic testing into routine preventive care, enabling earlier identification of individuals at higher genetic risk and personalised healthcare based on risk. This approach directly supports the ambitions set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, which commits to shifting the NHS from a reactive model to one that is predictive and preventive, using genomics and data-driven tools to tackle major conditions like diabetes earlier and more effectively.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of adopting reimbursed access at the point of marking authorisation for medicines; and what assessment they have made of the impact of cost-effectiveness appraisals after real world use on the consideration of potential long-term clinical and patient benefits.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government wants National Health Service patients in England to be able to benefit from rapid access to effective new medicines. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) evaluates all new licensed medicines and makes recommendations for the NHS on whether they should be routinely funded based on the evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness. NICE aims, wherever possible, to issue its recommendations close to the time of marketing authorisation to ensure that there is no gap between licensing and patient access to NICE recommended medicines. The 10-Year Health Plan and Life Science Sector Plan outline our commitments to speeding up access for NHS patients to new medicines through the introduction of a parallel marketing authorisation and NICE process.
NHS patients are able to benefit from access to promising new medicines through the Cancer Drugs Fund and Innovative Medicines Fund while further real-world evidence is collected on their use to inform a final NICE decision on whether they can be recommended for routine NHS funding.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
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 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's (NICE) evaluation processes at reflecting the pace of innovation in medical technologies, in particular for chronic conditions such as type 1 and 2 diabetes; and what assessment they have made of increasing NICE's cost-effectiveness threshold in line with the voluntary scheme growth rates since 2014.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
With the pace of innovation increasing, it is crucial now more than ever that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is focused on the highest impact technologies.
The Rules-Based Pathway (RBP), recently announced in the 10-Year Health Plan and Life Sciences Sector Plan, will, for the first time, create a national pathway that guarantees funding for several rigorously selected transformative technologies each year, streamlining the route to adoption in the National Health Service for selected devices, diagnostics, and digital tools. This will give NICE a powerful lever to drive healthcare transformation and help to position the United Kingdom as a first-to-market location for cutting-edge technology.
NICE assessments have been carried out on diabetes technologies, including: insulin pumps; continuous glucose monitors; and most recently, hybrid closed loop systems. Diabetes technologies listed on Part IX of the NHS Drug Tariff are also subject to more frequent review.
The 2024 voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access, and growth, which is an agreement between the Department, NHS England, and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, states that the standard NICE cost-effectiveness threshold will not change for the duration of the scheme, which ends in December 2028.
Under the current arrangements, NICE is able to recommend the majority of medicines it appraises for use on the NHS, with an approval rate of 84%.