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 whether long-term clinical benefits and broader impacts, such as economic activity and emotional wellbeing, of medical innovations are routinely considered by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence; and what assessment they have made of incorporating consideration of those impacts into evolving cost-effectiveness technologies.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) develops its guidance independently and on the basis of an assessment of the available evidence, taking into account all health-related costs and benefits for patients and caregivers, including health outcomes, in line with its established methods and processes.
NICE does not take account of economic productivity in its assessments. It would involve valuing interventions differently based on the working status of the recipient population, which would be methodologically and ethically challenging and could systematically disadvantage certain groups including children, long-term sick and unemployed people, and could result in fewer treatments being recommended for these populations.
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 progress of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence towards their priorities for 2025–26, including diabetes, and the impact of those priorities on patient access to novel technologies and treatments.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will shortly be publishing its business plan, which will set out its priorities for 2025/26, following approval by the NICE Board. NICE’s priorities will include delivery of commitments outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan. These include:
- the adoption of a dynamic approach to appraisals that identifies where existing innovation should be retired and where technologies should be sequenced within the clinical pathway, to improve value and health outcomes;
- expanding NICE’s technology appraisal process to cover devices, diagnostics, and digital products, supported by the introduction of a rules-based pathway for HealthTech, to reduce variation in access to high-impact medical technologies; and
- alignment of NICE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency processes, supported by information sharing and joint scientific advice, to speed up decision making and reduce the administrative burden for the system and industry, allowing new and innovative technologies to get to patients faster.
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%.
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 reduce the number of people diagnosed with cancer in an emergency care setting in (1) Yorkshire, and (2) other regions of the country.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer as early and quickly as possible and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes. This will help cancer patients across England, including in Yorkshire.
We are improving public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlining referral routes, and increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres. We are also investing an additional £889 million in general practices (GPs) to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade.
Alongside improving cancer waiting time performance, the NHS has implemented non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. To support the use of rapid diagnostic centres, non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways have been rolled out across England for patients who present with vague symptoms which could indicate multiple different types of cancer, for example unexplained weight-loss and fatigue.
The Government has announced that the National Cancer Plan will be published later this year, following the recent publication of the 10-Year Health Plan. The National Cancer Plan will ensure that cancer patients in England, including in Yorkshire, will have access to the best cancer care and treatments. It will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the national cancer plan will include steps to integrate exercise, nutrition and well-being support into prehabilitation and rehabilitation programmes for all cancer patients, as recommended in The White Rose Cancer Report, published by Yorkshire Cancer Research on 18 June; and what plans they have to adopt the ROSE model to ensure equity in research funding and implementation across the country.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and the National Health Service recognise the importance of physical activity for the prevention and management of long-term health conditions, including cancer.
The National Cancer Plan, due to be published later this year, will set out how experiences and outcomes can be improved for people at every stage of the cancer pathway, including prehabilitation and rehabilitation. The Department acknowledges that more can be done to support people living with and beyond cancer.
The NHS Cancer Programme, through local Cancer Alliances, is working to ensure physical activity is fully integrated across the whole cancer pathway, which includes opportunities within rehabilitation for people who have undergone treatment.
NHS England has highlighted the positive impact of efficient prehabilitation and rehabilitation on cancer outcomes and the potential to lead to cost savings. The ‘PRosPer’ Cancer Prehabilitation and Rehabilitation learning programme, launched in partnership between NHS England and Macmillan Cancer support, aims to support allied health professionals and the wider healthcare workforce in developing their skills in providing personalised care, prehabilitation, and rehabilitation in the cancer pathway.
The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments, and to supporting equity of research funding and implementation cross the country.
The Department funded National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) supports the principles outlined in the ROSE model, by funding research and research infrastructure, which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research.
The NIHR has made research inclusion a condition of its funding. Applicants to domestic research programmes are required to demonstrate how inclusion is being built into all stages of the research lifecycle and are also required to provide details of how their research contributes towards the NIHR’s mission to reduce health and care inequalities.
The NIHR’s Applied Research Collaborations are regional partnerships which generate high-quality research and evaluation, and work with the system to support the scaling and adoption of effective interventions and models of care nationally, particularly in areas of high disease burden and service demand.
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 potential cost savings to the NHS and social care system of implementing automatic stop smoking support at NHS touchpoints; and how will that inform future funding decisions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst no specific assessment has been made of the potential cost savings from stop smoking support in all National Health Services, we know that supporting more people to stop smoking reduces preventable illness and therefore pressure on health and social care services.
An evaluation of a pilot opt-out model in Manchester showed the gross financial return was £2.12, and the public value return was £30.49, per £1 invested. NHS England has also made a tool that estimates the potential cost savings associated with the reduced demand on front line services available for maternity services.
As of the end of 2024/25, 93% of NHS in-patient services and 97% of maternity services had a tobacco dependence treatment offer.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we remain committed to ensuring that all hospitals integrate smoking cessation interventions into routine care. As part of their allocations for 2025/26, integrated care boards have access to funding to support the provision of tobacco dependency treatment for smokers. Funding for future years is subject to final decisions following the recent Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) calls, and (2) online submissions, have been made to HMRC fraud hotline services in relation to illicit tobacco in each of the past ten years.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The table below shows the number of contacts received by HMRC’s Fraud Reporting Gateway in relation to illicit tobacco. The data is only available for the last 7 years due to HMRC’s retention policies.
Year | Online Submission | Telephone Submission | Total |
24/25 | 7,605 | 2,094 | 9,699 |
23/24 | 5,416 | 1,873 | 7,289 |
22/23 | 5,625 | 2,060 | 7,685 |
21/22 | 1,558 | 2,424 | 3,982 |
20/21 | 1,988 | 1,535 | 3,523 |
19/20 | 2,012 | 6,323 | 8,335 |
18/19 | 2,182 | 8,285 | 10,467 |