Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the NHS England uniform pricing policy on patients' access to innovative medicines.

Answered by Lord Markham

NHS England has successfully secured patient access to a number of innovative medicines under its policy of uniform pricing. European industry data from April 2023 showed that for every four treatments available in Europe, there is an additional medicine available in England, and a quarter more cancer drugs available in England compared to the European average.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many commercial agreements NHS England has made with manufacturers of medicines which allow, support or result in non-uniform pricing by individual medicine.

Answered by Lord Markham

Since April 2020, NHS England has agreed to 37 commercial agreements that have resulted in non-uniform pricing by medicine, via either the Cancer Drugs Fund, or through bespoke commercial deals to support routine commissioning.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of removing subject knowledge enhancement grants for religious education upon (1) the recruitment of teachers in that area, and (2) the standard of religious education being taught in schools.

Answered by Baroness Barran

Recruitment and retention are crucial to every curriculum subject. The department recognises that high-quality religious education (RE) relies on well trained, confident teachers. The department will be offering a £10,000 bursary for RE trainee teachers that are starting Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in the 2024/25 academic year. The latest data available to date for this 2023/24 academic year highlights that 246 candidates have accepted an ITT offer in RE. At the same point in the cycle in the 2022/23 academic year, 145 candidates had accepted an ITT offer in RE. This represents a 59% increase.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consultation was undertaken with the religious education community before removing subject knowledge enhancement grants from religious education.

Answered by Baroness Barran

Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) is only one element of the department’s overall teacher supply strategy and its primary objective is to support recruitment in hard-to-recruit subjects with sufficiency challenges. Considerations including SKE recruitment performance, overall Initial Teacher Training (ITT) numbers and other support available to candidates, including ITT bursaries, informed the recent decision on the SKE programme.

The SKE package is, and will continue to be, reviewed regularly to ensure SKE is targeted at the candidates that need it most. The department has plans to engage with the sector to inform future SKE in the coming months.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the successful applicants for secondary teacher training for religious education in the current recruitment year received a subject knowledge enhancement grant (1) before 10 April 2023, and (2) after that date.

Answered by Baroness Barran

246 candidates have accepted an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) offer for religious education (RE) in this academic year 2023/24. 106 of those 246 candidates, or 43%, have been set subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) as a condition of their ITT offer. 58 of those started their SKE up to and including 10 April 2024 and 48 have started or are due to start from 11 April onwards.

Found: Clause 14 LORD DAVIES OF BRIXTON _ [Withdrawn ] After Clause 15 LORD WARNER 48_ After Clause