Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to whether they would grant permission for Vladimir Putin to enter the UK.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The UK has made clear, for the avoidance of any doubt, that President Putin would not be welcome in the UK. FCDO officials re-emphasised this to senior officials at the Russian Embassy in the UK at a face-to-face meeting in early April. The UK sanctioned President Putin and applied an asset freeze shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of reports that Russian soldiers are castrating Ukrainian prisoners in prisoner of war camps, what assessment they have made of whether Russian soldiers are repeatedly committing crimes against humanity.

Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine is marked by increasing evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Ukrainian service personnel and civilians, including executions, torture and sexual violence. We are fully committed to holding Russian forces to account for any atrocities that have been committed in Ukraine. Established accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court's investigations and Ukrainian domestic judicial processes are investigating all allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The UK continues to support these independent investigations, including by establishing the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group with the US and EU to provide practical and financial support to assist the War Crimes Unit of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government when patient organisations such as Cystic Fibrosis Trust, whose Clinical Trials Accelerator Platform informed the design of Clinical Trial Acceleration Networks, will be able to share lessons to feed into the implementation update for the O'Shaughnessy Review.

Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government appointed Lord James O’Shaughnessy to carry out an independent review into United Kingdom commercial clinical trials. Following publication of the review on May 26, the Government made five headline commitments to improve the commercial clinical trials system backed by £121 million. This included £20 million to establish two or three new Clinical Trial Acceleration Networks which will bring together several existing mechanisms to create a joined-up approach to clinical trials, focusing on accelerating priority areas of research and delivering best practice.

An update on implementation will be provided in Autumn, which will outline progress against these commitments as well as responding in full to the review recommendations. Implementation of the five headline commitments and the full review response will be informed by consultation with the UK clinical trials community including individual medical research charities and the Association of Medical Research Charities, of which the Cystic Fibrosis Trust is a member.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to support for people living with long-term conditions such as cystic fibrosis, following the publication of the report Your life and CF by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust on 6 June, which found that one in five people affected by that condition missed a hospital appointment in the past 12 months due to cost.

Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)

People with long term conditions such as cystic fibrosis who are eligible for financial assistance through the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme can claim a refund of reasonable travel costs. Travel expenses should be calculated by reference to the cheapest means of transport that is reasonable for the patient. This can include journeys made in a private vehicle.

To help alleviate cost pressures associated with travel for appointments, NHS England is supporting NHS providers to embed, spread and use video consultations innovatively across their services. The decision on whether an appointment needs to take place face-to-face, on video or by telephone will be made by an expert clinician based on patients’ individual care needs and preferences.