Asked by: Adnan Hussain (Independent - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the policy under which women are routinely offered specialist recurrent miscarriage care after three pregnancy losses.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
We recognise that miscarriage can have a devastating impact on women and their families, and we are determined that they receive the support they need. That is why we have committed, in the Renewed Women’s Health Strategy, to closely reviewing the findings presented in the Tommy’s Graded Model of Care study, as part of our broader work on miscarriage care.
Asked by: Adnan Hussain (Independent - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 on international medical graduates employed in the NHS who had entered the 2026 recruitment cycle before that Act received Royal Assent.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 implements the Government’s commitment in the 10-Year Health Plan to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training places, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and internationally trained doctors with significant National Health Service experience for specialty training places.
For specialty training places starting in 2026, immigration statuses are being used as a proxy to capture applicants who are most likely to have significant experience working in the health service in the UK.
From 2027, immigration status will not automatically determine priority for specialty training. Instead, the act provides a power to specify in regulations any additional groups who will be prioritised by reference to criteria indicating significant experience as a doctor in the health service, or by reference to immigration status. The Department is working with NHS England, the devolved administrations, and other partners as part of the development of those regulations.
We recognise concerns about the impact of the act on those applying in the current application cycle for places, particularly where applicants did not know how prioritisation might affect them. However, delaying action would have prolonged the existing imbalance in training competition, and weakened our ability to plan a sustainable workforce.
International medical graduates who are not prioritised can still apply for postgraduate medical training and will be offered places if vacancies remain after prioritised applicants have received offers.
Asked by: Adnan Hussain (Independent - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of prostate cancer cases that could be detected at an earlier stage through the introduction of targeted screening for men at higher risk of developing prostate cancer.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Through the introduction of England's first ever targeted prostate cancer screening programme, and through the major package of investment of over £20 million to expand research and improve treatment announced on 2 June 2026, the Government is taking an important step forward in tackling the most common cancer in men.
The targeted screening programme, rolling out in 2027, will screen men between the ages of 45 and 61 years old who have a BRCA2 gene variant and a family history of prostate, breast, pancreatic, or ovarian cancer. The UK National Screening Committee has assessed that a targeted screening programme for these high risk men is justified on the basis that prostate cancer occurs more often, at a younger age, and more aggressively for men in this group than for other men. This means that, for this group, the benefits of early detection and treatment would outweigh the harms associated with overdiagnosis and treatment side effects.
It is estimated that approximately 1,500 men in England will be eligible for the targeted prostate cancer screening programme. Based on similar programmes for people with genetic risk factors, uptake is expected to be high.
This is a new programme which will potentially increase early diagnosis rates and survival in the eligible population, who, particularly at younger ages, have an increased risk of prostate cancer, with studies suggesting risks approximately five to seven times higher than average.
Asked by: Adnan Hussain (Independent - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of NICE's severity modifier on the availability of Enhertu for patients with secondary breast cancer.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) considered the impact of its severity modifier as part of its appraisal of Enhertu for HER2-low metastatic breast cancer. However, even with the severity weighting applied, NICE concluded that the treatment was not cost-effective at the price offered by the company and therefore could not recommend it for routine National Health Service use.
The Department recognises the disappointment this decision caused for patients and the breast cancer community, particularly as Enhertu is the only breast cancer treatment that NICE has been unable to recommend for NHS use in the last eight years. In light of NICE’s updated cost-effectiveness threshold, NICE, NHS England, and the manufacturers have resumed discussions to explore whether a commercial agreement can be reached that would make Enhertu available to NHS patients.
Asked by: Adnan Hussain (Independent - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including a targeted additional dose of radiotherapy within the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
No assessment has been made. This Government’s Health Mission will aim to make progress against major diseases, including cancer.
The NHS Long-Term Plan sets out the National Health Service’s key ambitions on cancer to increase the number of cancers diagnosed at stages one and two to 75% by 2028 and to increase the number of people surviving cancer for five years by 55,000 as a result.
NHS England is the accountable commissioner for radiotherapy which is a prescribed specialised service. Standards for service delivery are set out in the service specification, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-b/b01/