Childhood Obesity

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Thursday 22nd May 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

This Government have set a bold ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever and take action to address the childhood obesity crisis. As part of this ambition, this Government made a manifesto commitment to implement advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on TV and online.

These restrictions are designed to reduce children’s exposure to less healthy products, based on evidence that they contribute to childhood obesity, as well as incentivise businesses to reformulate their products and help create a healthier food environment. Alongside this and in support of this Government’s growth mission, we want to deliver proportionate regulation that balances the health benefits with the impacts on businesses.

My statement on 7 April reconfirmed to the House the Government’s intentions that brand advertising is out of scope of the restrictions and that businesses will still have opportunities to promote their brands, provided that their adverts do not identify a specific less healthy product.

We have listened carefully to the concerns that industry stakeholders have raised around the Advertising Standards Authority’s implementation guidance. We are aware that many brands have prepared advertising campaigns in good faith ahead of the restrictions’ current coming into force date of 1 October 2025 and remain concerned about how these adverts will be affected by the ASA’s approach to implementation.

We want to support economic growth and ensure that industry has confidence to invest in advertising but, at the same time, protect children from advertising of less healthy products. To that end, I am announcing today that the Government intend to make and lay a statutory instrument to explicitly exempt “brand advertising” from the restrictions. The SI will provide legal clarification on this aspect of the existing policy, as it was understood and agreed by Parliament during the passage of the Health and Care Bill. This will enable the regulators to deliver clear implementation guidance and mean that industry can prepare advertising campaigns with confidence.

To allow time to consult on the draft SI, we will amend the formal date these restrictions come into force to 5 January 2026 instead of 1 October 2025. However, in agreement with the Government, advertisers and broadcasters, with the support of online platforms and publishers, have made a clear and public commitment to comply with the restrictions as though they would still come into force from 1 October 2025.

This means that, from 1 October 2025, and in line with Government’s policy intentions, we would expect adverts for specific identifiable less healthy products not to be shown on TV between 5.30 am and 9 pm or at any time online, and there will be legal clarification on “brand advertising” before the restrictions come into force legally on 5 January 2026, subject to parliamentary approval.

We welcome that industry stakeholders have made this commitment and are working with us to implement this important policy for children’s health. They have signed a letter which will be published today on the Advertising Association’s website and which I have also deposited in the Library of the House. I am grateful for the assistance of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for working with us on securing these commitments.

This is a successful resolution that enables us to fulfil our manifesto commitment to implement this long-awaited policy while supporting businesses. The restrictions will help protect children from the harms of junk food advertising and help meet our ambition of raising the healthiest generation of children ever.

[HCWS652]

World Health Assembly: Adoption of the Pandemic Agreement

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

I would like to update the House regarding the international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response at the World Health Organisation. From 19 to 27 May, member states are convening at the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s main decision-making body, to discuss a wide range of global health issues. After three years of successful negotiations by member states, the pandemic agreement was adopted by the WHA on 20 May.

This is an historic moment, of which the UK and the rest of the world can be proud. The pandemic agreement represents an unprecedented opportunity to turn the hard lessons from covid-19 into lasting reform, by strengthening global pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. My last update to the House on 24 April outlined the benefits of the pandemic agreement and underlined that the agreement will respect the sovereignty of member states and protect our right to make independent, domestic public health decisions in the event of another pandemic. It should protect the NHS and the health of our people, and benefit our health security, economy and jobs, in line with our plan for change.

Now that the agreement has been adopted, an intergovernmental working group has been established to facilitate member states in negotiating and drafting an annex to the pandemic agreement. This annex will clarify the details of the pathogen access and benefit sharing system, including how it will operate. These negotiations will begin later this year. The UK will strongly advocate for expert input into the IGWG, to ensure the PABS system is both workable and effective. We will continue to work alongside our counterparts in the devolved Governments, overseas territories and crown dependencies, to ensure the development of a PABS system that works for the UK, the life sciences industry and our international partners.

Once the negotiations on the PABS annex have successfully concluded, the agreement, including the annex, will be open for signature. The agreement will not be binding on the UK as a matter of international law until the UK Government have ratified it in accordance with our own constitutional process. This would involve laying the agreement as a treaty before Parliament for scrutiny in the usual way.

I will continue to update the House at important and relevant junctures over the course of follow-up negotiations on the PABS system.

[HCWS651]

Chronic Urinary Tract Infections

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

It is an honour, as ever, to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I thank the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Luke Taylor) for securing this debate. I would like to welcome and acknowledge Phoebe and all others in the Gallery. Of course, I put on record straightaway that I will ensure that a meeting takes place with the relevant Minister—we are just working out whether that will be me or somebody else, but I will ensure that it takes place.

I also recognise the contributions from other hon. Members here today. My hon. Friend the Member for Dudley (Sonia Kumar), who is no longer in her place, always brings her expertise as a clinician to this discussion and does much to raise awareness. The hon. Member for North Down (Alex Easton), who is also no longer in his place, talked about antibiotics and AMR, which I will come to later. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and the spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller), spoke about Pharmacy First. Just to confirm, it does operate in England and is designed to ensure that women aged 16 to 64 can access treatment for uncomplicated UTIs. It is worth saying that the Government currently have no plans to extend that age group, as pre-16 or post-64 cases are not necessarily considered uncomplicated and would, we would argue, require a little more focus. My hon. Friend the Member for Watford (Matt Turmaine) recognised the desperation of many sufferers and highlighted the links to suicide.

Before I come to my speech and refer to some of the issues raised by the Front-Bench spokespeople, may I say that my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Dr Gardner) and I have been very good friends for some years? I know how she suffers, and I recognise her courage. She is such a powerful voice on this issue, and I am delighted that she has done what was necessary and worked so hard to get to this place and to be that voice here. I congratulate her on that.

UTIs are very common, especially for women, but chronic UTIs are much rarer. However, the charity Chronic Urinary Tract Infection Campaign, CUTIC, estimates that up to 1.7 million women in the UK may suffer from a chronic UTI. That is a very large number of people living in discomfort. I commend CUTIC for its work bringing attention to the plight of chronic UTI sufferers.

It is important to make clear the distinction between a UTI, a recurrent UTI and a chronic or persistent UTI. A recurrent urinary tract infection is defined as having two or more UTIs within six months, or three or more UTIs within a year, with symptoms sometimes reappearing after a course of treatment, but regular treatment can eventually cure these. For a chronic UTI, the symptoms never go away, despite treatment. At most, they might slightly abate. A UTI can impact significantly on someone’s quality of life, making it hard to concentrate, sleep or exercise.

For someone with a chronic UTI, the pain and discomfort does not end. The physical and mental struggle is relentless. The contemplation of suicide is, as we have discussed, not uncommon among people suffering with chronic UTIs. They can have a negative impact on both intimate and social relationships, as well as self-esteem. That can be incredibly isolating. A population-based survey in England of women over 16 in 2015 found that 37% reported at least one episode of UTI in their lifetimes. Meanwhile, 29% of women reported more than one episode of UTI and 3% of women reported a history of recurrent UTIs in the past year.

Misogyny in health services is an issue that has been discussed in this Chamber before, and women’s health remains a priority for the Government. We have been let down for too long, but we are determined to change that, and women’s health will continue to be a major focus as we fundamentally reform the health service and get it delivering for patients once again. We are working with NHS England to take forward our women’s health strategy, and we have set out plans to use the independent sector to cut gynaecological waiting lists through our investment and reforms. We will make sure that the NHS can be there for all women when they need it. We are bringing through those commitments as part of our 10-year health plan.

It is vital that people with chronic UTIs receive support and compassion from the NHS in diagnosis and treatment. No one suffering with a chronic UTI should be made to feel ashamed or in any way at fault for their condition. Living with the condition is a struggle enough without having to bear the insensitivity of others. Chronic UTI sufferers merit the same understanding as anyone else with a non-communicable disease.

As stated previously, the reasons why some people develop a chronic UTI are not well understood, and neither is how to cure one once it develops. A long-term dose of antibiotics has been shown to work in some cases, but it is not consistently replicable, and it is not a risk-free approach. There are also the added complications of antibiotic resistance to consider when adopting such a treatment regimen. I will return to that point.

Management of the condition is at the discretion of the responsible clinician, based on their specialist training and experience. Patients who remain symptomatic despite investigations and treatment by specialist urological services can be referred onwards to tertiary services. Again, I emphasise that all patients with chronic UTIs should be afforded compassion and support as part of their care. As the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam, who secured this debate, said, there is no NICE guidance specifically on chronic UTIs. The existing guidance provides advice on pain management and hydration. The local NHS is expected to have regard to NICE guidance in providing care and advice to patients.

The UK Health Security Agency has begun work in this area, alongside NHS England, primary care and patients, to develop resources to support clinicians in managing UTI conditions. At the moment, that is for recurrent UTIs, and we agree that more research is needed. To address the uncertainty, research is being undertaken. Through our National Institute for Health and Care Research, we are supporting work to understand the research gaps on UTIs. This happens through a James Lind Alliance priority-setting partnership, led by Antibiotic Research UK, Bladder Health UK and the Urology Foundation. The partnership will publish its findings in spring 2026.

The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, is funding research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections, including chronic UTIs. The research includes the development of antimicrobial-impregnated catheters to reduce episodes of catheter-associated UTIs, as well as something called the TOUCAN study to evaluate the rapid point-of-care UTI diagnostic tests in GP surgeries. Recently the NIHR invested £3.1 million into improving primary care antibiotic prescribing programmes.

I want to return to antimicrobial resistance and why it is an important consideration. The first five-year national action plan for AMR in 2019 set out a comprehensive “One Health” approach to address AMR, acting across humans, animals, food and the environment. A further five-year plan was published in March 2024. The UK Health Security Agency has also been working with colleagues from NHSE, primary care settings and patients to develop resources to support clinicians through the TARGET antibiotics toolkit. This toolkit training is currently being rolled out in multiple NHSE regions as part of an intervention to improve the management of common infections, including UTIs, in primary care. We need to build on these successes and ensure that antibiotics use is supported by evidence. AMR is a significant health threat, and an estimated 7,600 deaths were attributable to AMR in the UK in 2019.

The Lib Dem spokesperson, the hon. Member for Chichester, spoke about dementia and the added complications that that can lead to. Diagnosing UTI can be especially difficult in older people who often present with atypical or non-specific presentations, and it can be difficult to assess lower urinary tract symptoms in older patients with dementia. In care home settings the resident might not initially present as acutely unwell. They might present with increased lethargy, diminished appetite, reluctance to drink or just not be their usual self. Tools such as RESTORE2 can support care homes to alert a primary care clinician that the resident might be unwell and would benefit from an early clinical review. Care home staff encourage residents to keep hydrated, although that can be challenging in residents with dementia, as we know.

The Department is funding research into dementia and chronic urinary tract infections via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. The StOP UTI project at the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration in Wessex sought to identify effective strategies for preventing and recognising UTIs in care homes and has done some work to embed activities into care routines. It concluded that a systems-wide approach was necessary. In July 2024 the NIHR published a call for research applications to improve diagnosis of UTIs in older adults. Stage 2 applications are being considered by the funding committee this month.

The Lib Dem spokesperson also talked about community pharmacy and the 10-year plan, which will cover all conditions and is a strategic overview of how we will improve the NHS for everybody. I can confirm that the 10-year health plan is on track to be published next month.

The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson), talked about research programmes and guidance. I think I have referred to most of those things in my speech. If I have not, I am more than happy to write to her after this debate. She also touched on prevention. The UKHSA is working with NHS England to run a targeted campaign around UTI prevention in older adults. The campaign will include messages and materials that can be used to support older adults to adapt behaviours, which should reduce the risk of developing a UTI, including messages that suggest they talk to clinicians about treatment options if they have recurring UTIs.

In conclusion, I want to highlight our work to make a health service that is fit for the future. We hope that our focus on the three shifts to develop a modern NHS will help to address many of the challenges in navigating the health service faced by those with long-term conditions, including chronic UTIs. Our shift from hospital to community will help to drive more joint working between neighbourhoods in primary care, pharmacies, community health and social care, in order to help people to manage their conditions. As I have said, shortly we will publish our 10-year plan for health, which will set out how we will make our NHS fit for the future. I thank the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam once again for securing this debate to raise awareness of this important but often overlooked issue.

UK Health Security Agency: Porton Down

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

I thank the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) for securing this important debate and for his passionate advocacy on behalf of his constituents for the vital work conducted by the UK Health Security Agency at its Porton Down site. I also take the opportunity to recognise the intervention from my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) and his passionate advocacy on behalf of his constituents.

Before I come to the decision-making process, I want to use this opportunity to reference some of the incredible work that takes place on the site. Whether it is advancing vaccine development to address global health threats, such as Mpox, or leading the world in evaluating vaccines to ensure that we have effective programmes that save countless lives, Porton Down stands as a pillar of excellence in our national health security infrastructure.

Through the UKHSA science strategy, we are committed to securing health and prosperity with partners in industry and academia. That is why we established the vaccine development and evaluation centre on the Porton Down site, securing learning from the pandemic and advancing our critical research on vaccines. Porton Down’s diagnostics capabilities are equally vital, providing the UK’s only 24/7 service for detecting rare and imported pathogens, including life-threatening diseases such as Marburg virus, Ebola and Lassa fever. The site also plays a unique role in environmental microbiology and biosafety, helping us to understand better how infections spread in real-world settings.

Porton Down’s role does not stop at healthcare. It reaches into our ecosystems, our food chain and our environment. Porton Down is a national leader in medical entomology, including the surveillance of invasive mosquitoes and ticks. Its work ensures that the UK can rapidly detect and respond to vector-borne diseases, protecting the public from threats before they gain a foothold. The site’s food, water and environmental microbiology teams provide additional expertise that is critical to national resilience and the Government’s work on climate change; but, crucially, the work of those globally leading teams requires the best facilities.

As the right hon. Member will know, many facilities on the site are ageing, and I appreciate that the people who work there need clarity on its future as quickly as possible. The Government are thoroughly assessing options for securing the facilities that are required for these highly specialist functions and services in the future.

[Chris Vince]

I could talk about the benefits of the Harlow site for a long time, and I often do, but on this occasion I will be brief. May I ask the Minister, when the Government are making those decisions, to take account of the fact that the Harlow site is very much shovel-ready and is ideally located, given its strong infrastructure and travel links and its proximity to existing health clusters? The site would very much future-proof this important work.

[Ashley Dalton]

I can assure my hon. Friend that the benefits of all options will be considered.

[Dr Sullivan]

Will my hon. Friend also take into account the multidisciplinary roles and spaces involved in the jobs that she has outlined, and the fact that the existence of a hub, with most of those elements together in one place, will stimulate innovation and great healthcare outcomes?

[Ashley Dalton]

I can assure my hon. Friend, and the House, that all considerations will be taken into account when this decision is made. As I have said, the Government are thoroughly assessing options, including all those that have been raised. Two main options are under consideration: to rebuild and refurbish some facilities at Porton Down and its sister site at Colindale in north London, or to build an entirely new facility in Harlow, Essex. In either event, the staff working in the defence, science and technology laboratory at Porton Down will remain there, and even when a decision is made on those options, nothing will happen overnight. Complexity and rigorous scientific requirements mean that completion will take more than a decade, which is why we continue to invest in maintaining our current site and facilities at Porton Down, with £38.1 million allocated for capital investment in the recent spending review.

The Government are committed to ensuring that we retain the ability to carry out the vital functions of UKHSA Porton Down. Members, the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee have all advocated for an urgent decision, but identifying the right site that delivers on this mission, while ensuring best value for money, is a complex decision and one that we must get right. I can assure the House that extensive discussions are taking place between UKHSA, the Department of Health and Social Care and His Majesty’s Treasury to inform a decision, and I can confirm that this decision will be taken as part of the spending review, which will conclude next month.

[Steve Barclay]

Having had the opportunity to be involved in spending reviews, I would be interested to know the current provision for this scheme in the budget over the next three years, because alongside assessing the benefits, there will be the simple question of what is affordable. The NAO has set out an estimate of over £3 billion for the overall cost, but what has the Department provisioned for the spending review period?

[Ashley Dalton]

I do not currently have the detail on that, but I will write to the right hon. Gentleman following this debate. I can confirm that he knows as much as I do about what might be in the spending review, because those decisions have yet to be made, but more information will be made available as soon as possible.

As the Secretary of State said earlier this year,

“The worst decision is indecision”,—[Official Report, 13 March 2025; Vol. 763, c. 1295.]

and this Government are committed to sorting out this issue once and for all. A decision will be made in a matter of weeks. In anticipation of that decision, UKHSA is taking steps to prepare to remobilise the programme at pace. It recently invited the Government Internal Audit Agency to conduct a short review of its remobilisation plans as part of its commitment to ensure that there is maximum transparency and rigorous assessment of the programme. The agency has also obtained advice from the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

I am sure that colleagues from across the House share my view that the work conducted at Porton Down is critical to protect the country. The recent pandemic put into sharp focus how this work is fundamental to keeping us all safe. Although there is still the outstanding question of how we can best preserve the facilities for the country, whatever decision we take will be made in full consultation with the staff at Porton Down, whose critical skills are highly valued by us all.

I thank the right hon. Member for Salisbury again for raising this vital issue, and all Members who have intervened in the debate. I commit to updating him on progress once a decision is made.

Question put and agreed to.

World Asthma Day

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Thursday 15th May 2025 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for bringing this timely debate forward as we mark last week’s World Asthma Day. It shows real leadership from the chair of the APPG for respiratory health. In that spirit, I would be delighted to take him up on his offer of a meeting. We will arrange that as soon as we possibly can—I am keen to do it.

I thank hon. Members for their contributions. I am more than happy to meet the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) to discuss the issues that he raised, including prescription charges. There are currently no plans to review the list of medical conditions that entitle someone to apply for a medical exemption certificate. However, approximately 89% of prescription items are dispensed free of charge in the community in England and a wide range of exemptions are already in place. Eligibility depends on factors such as the patient’s age and whether they are in qualifying full-time education, are pregnant, have recently given birth or are in receipt of certain benefits. People on low incomes can apply for help with their health costs through the NHS low income scheme. Children are of course entitled to free prescriptions.

NHS England’s children and young people’s transformation team have been working closely with the MHRA on dose counters being added to inhalers. The “British National Formulary for Children” has been updated with guidance and supportive resources for patients and clinicians, which have been widely shared. We are awaiting an update on progress on making dose counter inhalers dominant in the supply chain from the pharmaceutical industry. I will be more than happy to update the House when we have it.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West (Jessica Toale), who focused on air quality, which is a priority for the Government and part of our prevention strategy, and the technology to help to manage asthma. There are a range of technologies available to help people to manage their asthma, and NHS England and NICE are exploring the potential for the platforms for digital self-management of asthma to be evaluated, but that depends on the technology readiness level. Guidelines developed jointly by NICE, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network and the British Thoracic Society to harmonise recommendations across the organisations were published in November 2024, and I hope they are useful.

Before I respond to the Front-Bench contributions—if there is anything I do not cover, please let us know and we will endeavour to write with the relevant details—I want to pay tribute to charities and campaigners: people who are doing the hard yards of helping to equip our hospitals and supporting people to manage their conditions in their day-to-day lives. I thank Asthma + Lung UK, Beat Asthma and the Asthma Relief Charity, to name just a few. The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans), asked about the contributions by charities to the major conditions strategy. I reassure him that engagement with such stakeholders has been central to the development of the 10-year plan. All submissions made to the major conditions strategy have been taken into account—nothing was wasted.

As the hon. Member for Strangford outlined, asthma is the most common lung condition, affecting nearly 5.5 million people in the UK. Just under one in 10 kids live with asthma, and more than 12,000 people have died from asthma attacks in the last 10 years. World Asthma Day is not just about treating a condition; it is about shining a spotlight on inequalities. I strongly agree with the hon. Gentleman that everyone, regardless of where they live or how much they have in their bank account, has the right to access the inhaled medications they need to control their condition and treat attacks.

Nevertheless, statistics published by Asthma + Lung UK just this month show that Asian people with asthma from the most deprived quintile in England are almost three times more likely to have an emergency admission to hospital than their white counterparts. Black people with asthma from that group are also more than twice as likely to be admitted to hospital. This is a burning injustice. As if that were not enough, the annual economic burden of asthma in the UK is around £3 billion a year. Lung conditions collectively cost the NHS £11 billion annually. That is why we must act.

I will update Members on NHS England’s activities in this space before moving on to wider Government efforts. NHS England is taking steps to support integrated care systems to improve outcomes for people with asthma through its national respiratory programme by providing targeted funding, clarifying what systems should be doing to ensure that people with asthma receive a high-quality and timely diagnosis, and working with key partners, industry representatives, patient groups and clinicians to support improved respiratory disease management. That will include shared decision making on inhaler choice and making better use of inhalers to reduce the overuse of reliever inhalers and encourage the use of preventer inhalers.

The hon. Member for Strangford raised the issue of access to and roll-out of treatments. Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, on behalf of NHS England, commissioned a national audit across respiratory care, which includes asthma, and all data from the audit is published for open access. NICE is working with BTS, SIGN, NHS England and others to review the resources available to support implementation of the guidelines, and plans to publish a respiratory toolkit. To support implementation of NICE guidance, NHS England has been engaging with health system partners across the country to co-ordinate resources and implementation efforts to make sure that patients are on the appropriate treatment regime.

NHS England is also protecting our children and young people through the national bundle of care. It is putting asthma care at the top of the agenda by giving asthma a higher priority within systems, providing funding for regional leadership, and strengthening governance and accountability to improve outcomes. It has also played a crucial role in making training easier and more readily available for staff by bringing together existing guidance and resources with a structured training scheme. Since its publication there has been a noticeable reduction in hospital admissions.

The hon. Member for Strangford and the shadow Minister both raised spirometry, a diagnostic test for asthma as well as other respiratory diseases. NHS England is working with a range of partners, including Asthma + Lung UK, the British Thoracic Society, the Association for Respiratory Technology and Physiology and clinical leads to make sure that systems have everything they need to increase the number of people receiving early and accurate diagnosis for respiratory disease. In the past year the Government have made extra funding available to make sure that staff have the proper training and accreditation to use spirometry effectively.

On inequalities, NHS England is taking steps to uplift the most deprived quintile through Core20PLUS5. That initiative focuses on five areas of improvement, of which chronic respiratory disease is a key part. There are targeted interventions to detect and treat asthma. The PLUS population groups include ethnic minority communities, people with a learning disability, autistic people, coastal communities, people with multimorbidity and protected characteristic groups. Core20PLUS5 also has a dedicated workstream for children and young people. The primary focus is to address over-reliance on reliever medications while decreasing the number of asthma attacks. That has made some progress, with clear reductions in the over-prescribing of reliever inhalers over the past few years. Between April 2022 and February 2025 the proportion of patients with asthma who received six or more reliever inhaler prescriptions fell from just under 20% to under 16%. The Government are supporting systems to take innovative approaches to expanding access to their diagnostic services, with a particular focus on addressing health inequalities.

Finally, the NHS rightly offers the flu vaccine free of charge to people with severe asthma as seasonal illnesses pose more of a threat to them than others. NHS England has been working with the severe asthma collaborative to develop the capacity of severe asthma centres to improve patient access to biologic treatments and to reduce variation in prescribing and patient management. That work has shown improved identification of patients with potential severe asthma in primary and secondary care, resulting in referral to severe asthma centres for consideration of their eligibility for biologic therapy. For four in 10 asthma patients with severe asthma those treatments can significantly improve their quality of life. However, it is vital that biologics are prescribed only following specialist assessment. Currently, the NHS is deploying six biological treatments approved to treat severe asthma.

The shadow Minister raised the issue of vaccines. I reassure him that a strategy and action are being delivered to increase vaccination uptake, including RSV and flu, because that is a priority for the Government. Returning to biologics, significant work was undertaken to drive uptake and access to them through the NHS England severe asthma collaborative, and patient outcomes are submitted to the UK severe asthma registry. That has improved the identification of patients with potential severe asthma, and has resulted in those people being referred to the relevant care pathways.

Every member of the Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children in our history. We are taking steps to protect our kids from obesity and smoking, which are major risk factors; each one is responsible for roughly a third of asthma deaths. We are taking action through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which I am pleased to say has just passed Second Reading in the other place.

In her autumn Budget, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor took steps to ensure that the soft drinks industry levy remains effective. We have not just uprated the levy to bring it in line with inflation; we also published a consultation just last month on two proposed changes—reducing the lowest sugar tax threshold from 5 grams to 4 grams of total sugar per 100 ml, and removing the exemption for milk-based and milk substitute drinks. Finally, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero is cleaning up our air with Great British Energy and a raft of other measures.

My Department will shortly be publishing its 10-year plan for health to make our NHS fit for the future. We will shift the focus of our NHS from sickness to prevention, hospital to community, and analogue to digital. Until then, we are already taking steps on prevention by helping people to lose weight and quit smoking or vaping, and by helping to clean up our air. We are helping people to get diagnosed closer to home by requiring community diagnostic centres to provide spirometry tests. The Government remain committed to ensuring that existing CDCs, where they are not already, are rolled out at full operational capacity at their permanent site.

[Dr Luke Evans]

The Minister mentioned spirometry. Could she comment on FeNO, and if not, could she write to us? The guidelines are built around that, but access is going to be an issue.

[Ashley Dalton]

Yes, I confirm that I will write to the shadow Minister on FeNO at a later date. NHS England is also piloting a digital annual asthma check.

I am sorry, Dr Huq, this is highly irregular, but I am feeling extremely unwell; I need to go and make myself okay. [Interruption.] Thank you for your forbearance, Dr Huq. Crohn’s is not something that we have debated in this Chamber; if we did, no doubt I would be the responding Minister, and I can assure you that I would be able to speak from personal expertise.

[Jim Shannon]

I used to have close contact with a guy called Simon Hamilton, who was an MLA for the constituency that I represent. He had Crohn’s disease—my knowledge of it came through him—and he was caught short many a time, if that is the way to put it.

May I ask the Minister a wee question? I asked about CDCs once NHS England is abolished—[Interruption.] I can see that she is coming to that. That is grand.

[Ashley Dalton]

Yes, I will come to many of those issues.

As I was saying, NHS England is piloting a digital annual asthma check, which, if successful, will mean that fewer people miss that valuable check and will keep the monitoring of their asthma up to date.

The Lib Dem spokesperson, the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller), asked about the public health grant. The grant has been increased and local directors of public health are best placed to identify where to target resources in their communities. As I have said, the 10-year health plan will be published next month. It will cover all conditions and will consider lung health. I have talked about the stakeholder engagement that was really important in that, and I can guarantee that, with the 10-year strategic plan for the NHS, we will look right across the board at how we can make sure that all conditions get due consideration.

During our short interruption, I was able to get a little more information for the shadow Minister on FeNO. Wessex Academic Health Science Network has created a FeNO rapid uptake product delivery toolkit, which is providing downloadable tools and resources to support NHS organisations with the adoption and implementation of FeNO testing to improve outcomes. Anyone can access that toolkit, which contains case studies of best practice identified through the programme. I hope that is helpful.

On the changes to NHS England, we are abolishing NHS England in itself, but none of its functions is disappearing. We are working really closely across the Department and NHS England, as well as with our ICB colleagues, to ensure that all services are transferred in an appropriate way. The purpose of the changes is to make things as efficient and targeted as possible and to ensure that they get to the people who need them the most.

Ensuring that community diagnostic centres are supported is really important to the Government, as it is very much part of one of our three shifts: from hospital to community. Those shifts—the other two are from sickness to prevention and from analogue to digital—are at the very heart of the 10-year plan.

I thank the hon. Member for Strangford for bringing forward the debate. I am sure that he would agree that World Asthma Day is not just for raising awareness; it should also be a celebration of the great things that people with asthma have accomplished. I did not know this until I saw the research for this debate, but past asthmatics have included Dickens, Disraeli and Beethoven. If those examples seem archaic, I can also point to Harry Styles, Jessica Alba and David Beckham, as well as to many prominent Olympic medallists. People with asthma achieve great things. It is our job in this place to help them to reach their full potential, with a particular focus on addressing how respiratory conditions affect people in deprived communities.

Brain Tumours: Research and Treatment

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh) and the hon. Member for Witney (Charlie Maynard) for securing this vitally important debate. They have both been powerful voices in this place for more research, greater care and better treatments for patients with brain tumours. My hon. Friend spoke so powerfully, as always, and in the name of her sister Margaret. I thank the hon. Member for Witney for sharing his sister’s story. I commend her for her fundraising activity and wish her the very best. The hon. Member asked three very clear questions, which I hope my response will cover.

I also thank other Members who made powerful contributions in what has been a very constructive debate. I hope my responses will answer their queries, but if not, I will endeavour to write to all Members following this debate about any gaps that are left. The hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) spoke about disparity of drug access. My right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) asked for zest, and spoke about the requirement for it. He expressed the frustrations of the APPG and others at the speed at which we are able to make progress. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) spoke about the importance of research, and my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Phil Brickell) spoke about clinical trials. The hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) brought his expertise on optometry to bear, and spoke about how useful an eye test can be. The hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan), the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, talked about low-grade tumours. I commend her constituents, whom she spoke about, for their work.

I thank the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans), for sharing the story of Isla’s stones. What a powerful metaphor and a powerful remembrance. He also spoke about the acquired brain injury strategy. My remarks will focus on brain tumours, but I can confirm that the ABI strategy remains in play and in development. I will update the House on that as soon as possible. First, I pay tribute to some fantastic charities for their advocacy—the Brain Tumour Charity, Brain Tumour Research, Cancer Research UK and Tom’s Trust, to name just a few.

Innovative research is vital in our fight against this devastating disease if we are to offer people the most cutting-edge treatments and the highest-quality care. The Department of Health and Social Care, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, invests over £1.6 billion per year in research. In the past financial year alone, it invested over £130 million specifically in cancer research. That has enabled 261 brain tumour studies to happen in the NHS, involving 11,400 people in potentially life-changing research over the past six years. Since 2018, the NIHR has directly invested almost £12 million in brain tumour research projects; it has also spent around £37.5 million on wider infrastructure investments in facilities, services and the research workforce, making research possible. In addition, over five years, between 2020 and 2024, the Medical Research Council committed more than £18.5 million to brain tumour research.

Our investments are having an impact. NIHR-funded research has shown that a new targeted drug combination treatment can give better outcomes for one of the most common types of paediatric brain cancer, but of course there is still so much more to do. Too little is known about how to prevent, diagnose and manage brain tumours, and they remain one of the hardest cancers to treat and a challenging area for research. That is why we are committed to furthering our investment in brain cancer research and have already taken some steps to stimulate scientific progress. I would like to offer the House just three examples from the past year.

First, in September, the NIHR announced a new package of funding opportunities for brain cancer research for both adults and children. Secondly, in December, the NIHR established a new national brain tumour research consortium. The consortium brings together research from a range of disciplines and institutions to drive faster scientific advancements in how we prevent, detect, manage and treat brain cancer. This complements the NIHR’s dedicated funding call on research into wraparound care, rehabilitation and quality of life for patients with brain tumours. It has received a high volume of applications, and those applications are under consideration by an independent expert peer review panel.

Thirdly, the Department is working actively as a member of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission to fully support the vision of bringing the best care to all brain tumour patients in the UK. Together, we will work with the brain tumour community to accelerate research and bring new insights to the field. This summer, the mission will launch the Tessa Jowell allied health professional research fellowship to train early-career health professionals in conducting vital research on how we improve patients’ quality of life.

The commitment to spend at least £40 million on brain cancer remains in place. The limiting factor has not been restrictions on funding, or funds being spent elsewhere, and every research proposal assessed as being fundable has been funded. My Department is now focusing on how we grow the scientific community working on brain cancer to get more research funded. We are committed to increasing spending on brain cancer research, and the £40 million target is not a funding ceiling—it will not end there. However, it is important that only high-quality applications be funded, so that public funds are invested well and produce impactful and usable research evidence. We will continue to work hand in glove with partners who fund research on new scientific discoveries, such as Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and brain tumour charities. We stand ready to translate these much-needed discoveries as quickly as possible into new treatments for patients via the NIHR.

My hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden raised the issue of partnerships with industry to develop treatments, and I can confirm that we are committed to working with the pharmaceutical industry and others with the common aim of creating a faster, more efficient, more accessible and innovative clinical treatment delivery system. We expect these efforts to attract more commercial investment in clinical research, and to yield a broad and diverse portfolio of clinical trials in the UK, so that we can provide innovative treatment options for patients, including those with glioblastoma. The new brain tumour research consortium, to which I have referred, will bring together people to work on that, and will work to detect, manage and treat rarer and less survivable cancers in children and adults.

Clinical trials are a crucial part of cancer research. They are the key to advanced medical progress, improved patient outcomes and more hope for the future. Britain is already one of the best destinations in the world for clinical trials, but we want to go further. On 7 April, the Prime Minister announced action to accelerate the set-up and delivery of clinical trials; the time taken to set up studies will be cut to 150 days by March next year, down from 250 days, according to the latest data, which was collected in 2022.

The Department of Health and Social Care is committed to being a world-leading destination for clinical trials. Work is ongoing to streamline and reform the set-up and delivery of clinical trials through digitalisation, and by reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. That is driving a “right research, right setting” initiative, and we are moving from reactive to proactive portfolio management, including by supporting the workforce and continuing to embed a research and innovation culture across the health and social care system.

The Government also support the private Member’s Bill on rare cancers, brought forward by my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur). The Bill will make it easier for clinical trials on rare cancers to take place in England by ensuring that the patient population can be easily contacted.

This Government are committed to backing innovative clinical research ecosystems in the UK, so that British patients can be among the first to benefit. We will bust bureaucracy, fast-track clinical trials and give patients improved access to cutting-edge treatments and technologies, including for brain tumours. “Be Part of Research” is our landmark service, allowing people from all walks of life across the UK to find and participate in research relevant to them, which could transform lives. I urge everybody watching at home to sign up to “Be Part of Research” and to get involved.

We have spoken about medicines repurposing, whereby medicines approved for a particular condition are used in new ways to treat different conditions. Repurposing drugs may have particular value for rare cancers, such as brain cancers, for which drug development has been limited. As my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden noted, NHS England has suspended its medicines repurposing programme, but not because it is unimportant; it has shown that opportunities to use existing medicines in new ways can be delivered without the support of a formal repurposing programme, including, for example, through local off-label prescribing. This creates opportunities for NIHR and other funders to support proposals for clinical trials that use repurposed drugs for rare cancers. We will help researchers work with industry and clinicians to strengthen the evidence base for new drugs, and for new uses of drugs, so that we can find out how patients can best be helped.

[Helen Morgan]

How well will that work be co-ordinated if it is done on a local, sporadic basis, and how will the repurposing of drugs be co-ordinated centrally if NHS England is no longer undertaking that work?

[Ashley Dalton]

NHS England has found that creating that environment does not necessarily provide new and better ways of repurposing drugs, and that can be done far more efficiently and far less bureaucratically by using local off-label prescribing. We are looking at how we can incentivise researchers and clinical trials to explore repurposing drugs.

We are determined to make the NIHR and other funders grasp opportunities to support those proposals. We will help researchers work with industry and clinicians to strengthen the evidence base for new drugs.

The NHS is working hard to diagnose and treat cancers on time. There is more to do on early diagnosis and faster treatment, in order to improve patient experience and survival. The NHS is focused on improving diagnostic waiting times, and on providing MRI, CT and other tests to reduce cancer waits, because, as Lord Darzi’s investigation has shown, we face significant challenges if we are to bring this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standard of the best in the world. We know that the best way to improve survival for those with brain tumours, and with all cancers, is to diagnose patients early and treat them quickly.

In our first six months, 80,000 more patients received a diagnosis or an all-clear within 28 days than did in the previous year, thanks to investment in cutting NHS waiting lists. In March, more than 80% of patients in England referred for cancer had it ruled out or diagnosed within 28 days—it is the first time that target has been met in years—but we must go further, and we will. Our reforms to cancer care will see more than 100,000 people diagnosed faster, and thousands more starting treatment within two months across the NHS.

There is no single solution to this complex challenge. That is why my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, has been clear that there will be a national cancer plan published later this year. This plan will ensure that rarer cancers, including brain cancers, will not be left behind. It is my absolute privilege, as a person with cancer, to be driving that cancer plan. I am delighted that we have so far received more than 11,000 representations as part of the call for evidence. I can assure my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden that her contributions and all others will be taken seriously.

The Liberal Democrat spokesperson also talked about low-grade cancers. There is a difference between staging and grading, and it is important that we are clear about that. Low-grade brain tumours are considered non-cancerous, and they grow more slowly and are less likely to spread, but although low-grade brain tumours are generally non-cancerous, they can have similar serious symptoms, and require surgery or radiotherapy to treat them. The Government are investing in new life-saving and life-improving research to support people diagnosed with those cancers.

In closing, for those affected by this devastating disease, every discovery, every treatment and every moment matters. We recognise that more needs to be done to stimulate high-quality, high-impact research into brain tumours. Through our targeted package of support, that is what we will do. We completely understand the strength of feeling on this issue, not least because three Ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care are cancer survivors. We know how terrifying it is to receive a diagnosis. We have sat in waiting rooms, hoping for good news and fearing the worst—and we have heard the worst. We have had those difficult conversations with our loved ones and seen the devastating impact on their lives. That is why we are committed to making a real difference for patients with brain cancer. We will leave no stone unturned until they get the first-class care that they deserve. I look forward to further discussing how we can achieve this when I meet members of the all-party parliamentary group on brain tumours next week.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call Dame Siobhain McDonagh to wind up.

Oral Answers to Questions

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Katie White (Leeds North West) (Lab)]

9. What steps he is taking to use new technology to help improve preventive healthcare.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

We are already using technology to improve preventive healthcare and to transform the NHS. We have invested £11 million in artificial intelligence to trial breast cancer screening mammogram interpretation. We are piloting the NHS health check online to tackle cardiovascular disease, and our NHS Better Health digital products, including the award-winning Couch to 5K app, were used by millions of people last year to tackle preventable conditions. More will be included in the 10-year health plan.

[Katie White]

Leeds is leading the way in health tech, with Leeds teaching hospitals, the city council, NHS Digital and firms like EMIS, headquartered in Rawdon in my constituency, driving real innovation. How will the Secretary of State and his team ensure that Leeds is at the heart of the NHS 10-year plan, so that we can shift to prevention and spread the benefits to every corner of the UK?

[Ashley Dalton]

I commend the work that my hon. Friend refers to. The new HealthTech innovation hub—a flagship project of the West Yorkshire investment zone—brings together West Yorkshire combined authority, organisations like the HealthTech Leeds partnership, academics, clinicians, policymakers and more than 250 health tech firms headquartered in the region. They are already driving forward health innovation together. As we have said before, we must learn about the best of the NHS and take it to the rest of the NHS. The 10-year plan will shift us to a model in which the NHS focuses on prevention, with more services delivered in local communities through new technologies.

[Alex Brewer (North East Hampshire) (LD)]

A piece of technology that already exists that can prevent hydrocephalus is the humble tape measure. The Secretary of State said that he would ask the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to conduct a review of the frequency with which infants’ heads should be measured to allow us to detect hydrocephalus early. The charity Harry’s HAT—Hydrocephalus Awareness Trust—based in my constituency says that this review is not necessary, and that the evidence is already there. Will the Minister meet me and the charity to discuss this further, so that more infants’ lives can be saved?

[Mr Speaker]

In fairness, the Secretary of State did meet them.

[Ashley Dalton]

And he has just sold me on what a wonderful charity it is. I would be more than happy to make sure that the relevant Minister meets the hon. Member to discuss the matter.

[Gregory Stafford (Farnham and Bordon) (Con)]

10. What progress he has made on the abolition of NHS England.

--- Later in debate ---

[Josh MacAlister (Whitehaven and Workington) (Lab)]

11. What steps his Department is taking to implement neighbourhood health centres.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

We are committed to fixing the front door of the NHS, including by delivering the primary care infrastructure required to enable a neighbourhood health service. We have already taken steps to improve primary care infrastructure, including by providing £100 million of capital funding to upgrade GP buildings. We will set out how we will move to a neighbourhood health service in our upcoming 10-year plan, following the spending review.

[Josh MacAlister]

I thank the Minister for her answer. Workington suffers from some really poor health outcomes and has an incredibly fragmented health system. I have worked with local leaders in my constituency to pull together a plan for a new neighbourhood health centre called the Workington health zone, based around multidisciplinary teams, clear goals, less bureaucracy and much greater access for patients. Does the Minister agree that this is exactly the kind of reform that we need to enable through the forthcoming 10-year plan?

[Ashley Dalton]

I do agree, and I would be delighted to work with my hon. Friend on the Government’s commitment to delivering a neighbourhood health service that reinforces integrated working for the NHS, local government, social care and wider partners as the norm.

[Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)]

Knutsford desperately needs a modern medical centre. The local GPs and the community are united in feeling that current provision is no longer fit for purpose. With the population growing, it cannot meet everybody’s needs. In the light of the Government’s announcement of £102 million to modernise GP surgeries, so that it is easier for them to see more patients, will the Minister meet me to discuss a new modern medical centre for Knutsford?

[Ashley Dalton]

I thank the right hon. Member for recognising the significant investment announced today in GP services and buildings, and I would be delighted to ensure that the relevant Minister meets her.

[Gareth Snell (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

12. What discussions he has had with Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent integrated care board on patient waiting times.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Richard Quigley (Isle of Wight West) (Lab)]

T3. I pay tribute to my 17-year-old constituent, Arlo Lambie, who tragically died on 13 April following the diagnosis of a grade 4 brain tumour. I knew Arlo—he was a fun and bright lad who will be sadly missed. While Arlo’s parents, Ellie and Alex, wish to put on record their thanks for the “incredible and compassionate care” Arlo received at St Mary’s hospital on the Isle of Wight, they want to know what steps the Secretary of State is taking to improve NHS access to breakthrough treatments to ensure that the commercial interests of pharmaceutical companies do not take precedence, so that children with brain cancer, like Arlo, are given the best possible chance to survive for longer.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

I add my heartfelt condolences to Arlo’s family. In September, we launched a new series of funding opportunities designed to improve brain cancer research for both adults and children. We are committed to furthering our investment and support for high-quality brain tumour research, ensuring that funding is used in the most meaningful and impactful way. Hon. Members will note that there is a debate on Thursday on brain tumours, and I will be attending the all-party parliamentary group on brain tumours next week.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gregor Poynton (Livingston) (Lab)]

Lung cancer causes more deaths in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK. In England, early detection programmes are under way, and by 2028 every patient is likely to gain access to screening. In Scotland, doctors tell me that that programme is a distant dream. Does my hon. Friend agree that the SNP is failing Scottish patients and Scottish healthcare professionals? This UK Government are getting on with the task of fighting this deadly cancer.

[Ashley Dalton]

I agree with my hon. Friend. We are making great strides in developing our cancer plans. We will be launching a national cancer plan later this year, and the targeted lung cancer screening programme has been particularly effective. The SNP has had a record settlement for Holyrood, and we expect the Scottish Government to deliver. If they cannot, I am sure that Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie would be willing to take over.

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

Yesterday’s report from the Health and Social Care Committee is explicit that we cannot build an NHS fit for the future without effectively reforming social care. Back in January, the Secretary of State promised cross-party talks as well as Baroness Casey’s commission. He cannot outsource political leadership to Baroness Casey. Political will is the sticking point with the reform of social care. Will he show that leadership and bring the parties together to find the solutions to unblock this crisis?

Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

This Government want to ensure that every person with multiple sclerosis receives high-quality healthcare.

Today, during MS Awareness Week (28 April to 4 May), I would like to update the House on the work under way to support service improvement and ensure better care for patients with MS in England.

The Government have set out an ambitious programme of reform for the NHS. The health mission has set the clear goals of achieving an NHS that is there when people need it and a fairer Britain where everyone lives well for longer. Our plan for change will rebuild the health service and deliver better care for everyone.

NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time neurology programme supports improvements to MS care by identifying and addressing variations in care, sharing best practices, and promoting efficiency through a clinically-led approach, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes and reduced costs.

NHS England’s neuroscience transformation programme is also improving MS care by focusing on faster diagnoses, better co-ordinated care, and improved access to specialist services.

While the transformation programme provides the overarching framework for improving neurology care, products such as the RightCare progressive neurological conditions toolkit offer practical guidance and support to improve MS care by promoting a joined-up, high-quality approach, ensuring that patients have access to specialist care and resources, and facilitating better co-ordination of care across different services.

NHS England is also updating its specialised neurology service specification, which includes MS. Service specifications define the standards of care expected from organisations funded by NHS England to provide specialised care.

The Government have also recently established the Neuro Forum, a UK-wide Government-led forum focusing on services and support for people affected by neurological conditions. It is the first of its kind and brings together the Department, NHS England, devolved Governments and health services, and neurological alliances across the UK to address gaps in treatment and care, and to drive improvements in neurological health across the four UK nations.

In March, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published technology appraisal guidance on cladribine (Mavenclad), expanding its recommended use to include people with relapsing-remitting MS who have active disease; previously only recommended for highly active RRMS, NICE has now expanded its availability to a much wider group of patients, with the NHS becoming the first healthcare system in Europe to roll it out widely to patients with active disease. It is estimated that about 2,000 patients could be offered the treatment over the first three years.

NICE’S approval of ublituximab (Briumvi) for active relapsing-remitting MS, in December 2024, has further expanded the range of drugs available to people in the NHS, ensuring that more people can find the treatment that is best for them.

Research is advancing our understanding of MS. The Department delivers research into neurological conditions via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. In 2023-24, the NIHR spent £72.9 million on research into neurological conditions across research projects, programmes and infrastructure.

Through the NHS 10-year health plan, we will aim to improve care for people with long-term conditions such as MS.

The plan will set out bold ambitions to provide more care in the community, make greater use of technology and build a more preventive health service. This will include how the NHS will provide high-quality care for people living with long-term conditions such as MS.

[HCWS614]

Parkinson’s Awareness Month

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) for raising this important issue, and I congratulate him on leading the first substantive debate on Parkinson’s in the House. I also thank all Back Benchers for their insightful contributions, which raised various issues. Although the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East (Saqib Bhatti), my hon. Friends the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson), for Stirling and Strathallan (Chris Kane), for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean), for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) and for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan) and the Members for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) and for Strangford (Jim Shannon) all raised various issues, it is fair to say that everybody who has spoken today, including those who made contributions from the Opposition Front Benches, have raised the importance of the voluntary and community sector and shared some powerful and important stories from their constituents.

April was Parkinson’s Awareness Month and I pay tribute to the fantastic charities that make it a success: Parkinson’s UK, Cure Parkinson’s and The Brain Charity, to name but a few. In particular, I was moved to see how many people had contributed to the “Knit it Blue” campaign, sending in more than 500 beautiful knitted tulips. I also pay tribute to the Movers and Shakers, whose podcast is doing a fantastic job of raising awareness and advocating for better care and treatment for those living with Parkinson’s.

Awareness campaigns really deliver results. We just need to look at the “Get It On Time” campaign, which has led to more than 100 NHS organisations pledging to improve the delivery of time-critical medication—raised a number of times in this debate—and is backed by resources and training materials commissioned by NHS England. We also now have the Parky charter, which is galvanising public and professional awareness of the needs of the Parkinson’s community to ensure timely diagnosis, comprehensive care and dignity for all people with Parkinson’s.

We recognise the challenges of living with Parkinson’s and hear the calls from the Parkinson’s community for more research, shorter waiting times for neurology appointments and more Parkinson’s nurses and multi- disciplinary teams to deliver Parkinson’s care. The Parkinson’s UK website has given a voice to many patients living across the country, and I want to echo the comments made by Andrew in the west midlands that our Parkinson’s nurses are

“worth their weight in gold.”

Neurology is particularly challenging, and we need more neurologists and specialist nurses. There are initiatives nationally that support service improvement and better care for Parkinson’s patients. NHS England’s Getting it Right First Time neurology programme supports improvements to Parkinson’s care by promoting data-driven approaches, sharing best practices and fair access to services. It focuses on improving patient experiences, shining a spotlight on disparities in care and calling for well-integrated processes, such as people getting their meds on time.

The NHS constitution handbook sets out that patients should start consultant-led treatment within 18 weeks from referral. NHSE published a new elective reform plan in January, setting out the steps towards meeting this target by the end of this Parliament, and we achieved our pledge to deliver an additional 2 million elective appointments between July and November 2024, compared with the same period in 2023, seven months ahead of schedule. That is a first step to delivering our commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029.

The Department for Work and Pensions offers personal independence payments to individuals with health conditions or disabilities. However, there is currently no automatic entitlement to PIP in relation to any specific health condition except in cases of people nearing end of life. The Government recently brought forward a Green Paper on the health and disability benefits system and the support we offer entitled “Pathways to Work”. In that, we consider how to improve the system for those with very severe health conditions and disabilities, which includes exploring ways to reduce the need for some people with severe health conditions to undergo a full PIP functional assessment. I am due to meet the DWP Minister next week. I will raise the issues that have been raised today with her, particularly by my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar, the hon. Member for Strangford and others.

The primary focus of the Department for Transport’s blue badge scheme is to help those with the greatest mobility needs and it is not condition-specific. The blue badge eligibility criteria in England were extended in 2019 to include more people with non-visible disabilities, in order to ensure that people with the greatest needs, whatever their disability or condition, have access to a badge. There are several automatic qualifying criteria for a blue badge, such as being in receipt of certain benefits. People who do not automatically qualify due to receiving certain benefits may still be eligible, and local authorities will assess applications based on the information provided.

There are currently no plans to add to the list of conditions that give entitlement for free prescriptions. However, approximately 89% of prescription items are currently dispensed free of charge, and a wide range of exemptions are already in place. People with Parkinson’s who are over 60 years old are entitled to free prescriptions, and for those who do need to pay, the cost can be capped by purchasing a prepayment certificate. In addition, the NHS low-income scheme can provide help with health costs on an income-related basis.

My hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar asked me to meet several stakeholder organisations, and I am more than happy to meet them to discuss the Parky charter. I understand that Parkinson’s Connect is being piloted with six healthcare teams in England and Scotland, with more planned in 2025. I would be pleased to discuss how the pilots are providing comprehensive support to people with Parkinson’s on how they are progressing and on next steps.

NHS England’s neuroscience transformation programme improves Parkinson’s care by focusing on faster diagnosis, better co-ordinated care and improved access to specialist services. For example, it contributes to shifting our NHS from hospital to community and from analogue to digital through the home-based care pathway. That focuses on providing comprehensive support and care for individuals in their own homes, integrating remote monitoring through wrist-worn sensors, and providing symptom management advice and access to healthcare professionals. Empowering patients to manage their condition at home means we can improve their quality of life and, crucially, maintain their dignity and independence.

Last November, we established the Neuro Forum—a UK-wide, Government-led forum focusing on services and support for people affected by neurological conditions. It is the first of its kind and brings together the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, devolved Governments and health services, and neurological alliances across the UK to address gaps in treatment and care and to drive improvements in neurological health across the four nations. The forum will focus on practical things, such as a better understanding of neurological workforce challenges and help to address them; teaching other staff to provide better care for people living with one or more of over 600 neurological conditions including Parkinson’s; sharing innovative solutions, such as new therapies; and, crucially, ensuring that patients’ voices are heard.

Research has been touched on by many speakers. It advances our understanding of Parkinson’s as we develop new treatments, technologies and management strategies. Today these things help people to live well with Parkinson’s; tomorrow they could deliver a cure. The Government are strongly committed to supporting research into Parkinson’s disease. We continue to encourage research through targeted funding, infrastructure support, policy initiatives, and collaboration and partnerships. For example, the UK Dementia Research Institute, which is primarily funded by Government, is partnering with Parkinson’s UK to establish a new £10 million research centre dedicated to better understanding the causes of Parkinson’s and finding new treatments. The centre, supported by five of the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s biomedical research centres, has discovered that eye scans can detect Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before symptoms appear, enabling people to receive treatment and make any appropriate lifestyle changes earlier. I reassure the House that changes to the structure of NHS England and the Department will seek to eliminate duplication and improve efficiencies to ensure that work on Parkinson’s continues to develop.

Research is, of course, crucial for discovering new drugs and underpins the entire drug discovery and development process. Produodopa is a groundbreaking new treatment for Parkinson’s disease, particularly for patients with advanced disease and severe motor fluctuations. It is revolutionary because it provides a continuous 24-hour infusion of medication via a small pump, providing more consistent symptom control. The NHS rolled it out in February last year. It has been shown to improve motor function and has proved its worth by significantly improving the quality of life of those with advanced Parkinson’s. I briefly remind colleagues that the NHS in England is legally required to make funding available for treatments recommended by technology appraisal guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

We all want to see people with Parkinson’s live as well as possible for as long as possible. That is why it is not good enough that we still see inequalities in access to Parkinson’s services. Neurology services have been facing real challenges, including in the workforce, delays to treatment and care, and a lack of information and support for patients. Through the forthcoming NHS 10-year health plan, we will improve care for people with long-term conditions like Parkinson’s. In response to the hon. Member for Meriden and Solihull East, I can confirm that the plan will drive our ambition towards greater use of technology and data in the NHS.

A core part of the 10-year health plan will be our workforce and how we ensure that we train and provide the staff the NHS needs to make it more accessible, proactive and tailored for patients. The refreshed NHS workforce plan will set out the numbers of doctors, nurses and other professionals that will be needed in five, 10 and 15 years’ time. It will reflect the fact that our NHS is caring for patients with increasingly complex needs.

However, we are already making progress on the workforce to support those with Parkinson’s, including by having over 900 full-time equivalent consultants—over 30 more than in 2023. There are 27 specialised neurology centres across England. As of January, over 7,700 full-time equivalent speech and language therapists are employed in NHS trusts—an increase of over 300 compared to last year. There are over 17,900 full-time equivalent occupational therapists—an increase of over 600. As of January, there are almost 25,300 full-time equivalent physiotherapists—over 900 more than last year.

We have also had a record increase in the carer’s allowance. I do not have an update on the social care talks, but I will ensure that the Minister for Care hears that the matter has been raised in the debate.

I once again extend my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar for securing the debate and to all Members who have spoken. I look forward to working with them all to ensure that people living with Parkinson’s have the dignity they deserve. I began by talking about Parkinson’s Awareness Month. One thing that struck me from hearing so many people share their stories, and from the stories shared in the debate, was the number who felt uncomfortable sharing their status, sometimes even with their close friends and family. This past month has been about smashing the stigma, and I know that this debate will play its part in that too.

Black Maternal Health Awareness Week

Ashley Dalton Excerpts

Tuesday 29th April 2025 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. Before I begin, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) for securing this important debate during Black Maternal Health Awareness Week. It is so important that we raise awareness of the disproportionate challenges faced by black mothers during pregnancy and after childbirth; debates in weeks such as this are critical to that.

I want to pay tribute to the charities that do so much vital work in this space: the Motherhood Group, Five X More, Black Mums Upfront, which is part of Bliss, and Ebony Bonds, to name just a few. I am taking this debate on behalf of the Minister for women’s health and patient safety, Baroness Merron. I also want to thank all hon. Members for their contributions to this debate. I will seek to pick up and answer all their queries, but if they feel I have not done so by the end of the debate, I ask them to please get in touch and I can ensure we respond.

I want to thank the charity Sands for shining a spotlight on some of the most heartbreaking cases of baby loss in the UK, and for giving a voice to so many black and Asian women who have gone through the nightmare of losing a child. One such case was Amber Lincoln from Woolwich in south-east London. She was miscategorised as low risk when she was pregnant, and nearly died from undetected complications after her delivery. A series of individual and systemic failings led to cancellations and delays, and her twins, Anaya and Mael, were born and died at 22 weeks in November 2022, before she could access the care she needed. Amber said:

“If the NHS just listened to me. And just put my appointment through when I was constantly asking. If they had the notes there properly I wouldn't have been treated that way.”

She said the fact she was mixed race led midwives to focus on diabetes and high blood pressure rather than other high-risk indicators. I wish I could stand here and say that Amber was an isolated case, but her story will sound familiar to black women up and down the country, and it shows in the figures. The latest data from MBRRACE-UK shows maternal mortality rates for women from black ethnic backgrounds are more than double those for white women. Black women and their babies are also at higher risk of stillbirth, neonatal death and miscarriage. That should shame us in modern Britain.

Tackling inequalities and racism in maternity services is an absolute priority for this Government. Our manifesto committed to setting an explicit target to close the black and Asian maternal mortality gaps. That commitment has not wavered—we are working hard not only to set a target but to set the actions that will help deliver it. It is crucial we set the right targets and ensure the system is supported to achieve them, which is why the Government are currently considering the action needed that would drive change on the ground, ensuring that targets set are evidence-based, and women and baby-centred.

Our ambition is not just to improve maternal outcomes; we want to improve black women’s experiences of maternity care too. We know that too often black women are not listened to and experience racism and bias. That is completely unacceptable. Importantly, our ambition must also extend beyond maternity services, so that we can tackle wider health inequalities, including the determinants of ill health. I know that health inequalities do not start at the door of maternity services, and nor do they end when women go home.

Here is what we are doing and where we need to go further. We are aware of calls for a national inquiry into maternity care, which we will carefully consider. There have been a number of reviews, inquiries and wider research in recent years that have provided a shared and clear sense of the issues in maternity and neonatal care. The most important priority must remain for us to target resources and efforts to address the existing issues identified and avoid any further delays. The focus must be to address inequalities and the action taken to do so for women and babies.

NHS England is now in the final year of delivering its three-year plan to improve maternity and neonatal services. Central to the plan is the objective to reduce inequalities for all in maternity access, experience and outcomes, and taking steps to tackle and address inequalities for black women. To achieve this objective, all local areas now have in place and are implementing their equity and equality action plans. Those plans detail local interventions tailored to population needs, in order to tackle inequalities for women and babies from ethnic minorities and those living in the most deprived areas. There have been some great examples of local best practice within those plans, ranging from targeted pre-conception health support to tailored support to ensure equitable access to care, and bespoke communications for pregnant asylum seekers and refugees.

As part of the three-year delivery plan, all local areas are working to implement version three of the Saving Babies’ Lives care bundle, which provides maternity units with guidance and interventions to reduce and tackle the inequalities in stillbirths, neonatal deaths, brain injuries and pre-term births. Those local and national interventions are essential steps to improving equity and equality in maternity care.

In parallel, however, it is vital that we continue to work to foster a culture of safety, compassion, honesty and one that is actively anti-racist, which must be led by outstanding leadership. I am pleased that all 150 maternity and neonatal units in England have signed up to the perinatal culture and leadership programme.

For clarity, and I think particularly for the shadow Minister, we recognise that racism and unconscious bias need to be tackled, that they are unacceptable and must be tackled in the NHS.

[Dr Johnson]

Will the Minister give way on that point?

[Ashley Dalton]

I will finish what I am saying and then I will give the shadow Minister an opportunity to come back to me.

To clarify, this work is not only about the behaviours that we must tackle in the NHS; it is also about the systems that we create in the NHS and ensuring that those systems do not consciously or subconsciously discriminate against people on the grounds of their race. That is what we mean and that is why we are putting in place training for leaders in our maternity units. We will ensure that they are signed up to the perinatal culture and leadership programme, to ensure that those systems are as equitable as they possibly can be.

[Dr Johnson]

I thank the Minister for giving way. I think we all agree that racism is wrong and must be weeded out wherever it happens. Could she say, in answer to the question posed by the hon. Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) at the beginning of her speech, whether she believes that the NHS is structurally racist?

[Ashley Dalton]

The shadow Minister will know that that is not actually the question that my hon. Friend asked. She asked about systemic racism. We recognise that racism and unconscious bias can play a part both in the behaviours of some people, which must be tackled, and in the way that systems are structured. That is why the training that we are introducing will help to tackle racism. It is not necessarily the case that there is racism throughout the NHS, but we must do everything we possibly can to make sure that NHS systems are as equitable as they can be.

[Dr Johnson]

I thank the Minister for giving way again. I confess that I thought I heard the hon. Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill say “structural”. However, if the word she used was “systemic”, does the Minister think the NHS is systemically racist?

[Ashley Dalton]

I think that we have to do everything possible to make sure that all the systems in the NHS are as equitable as possible.

We have set clear expectations for escalation and accountability through the three-year plan, and all 150 maternity and neonatal units in England have signed up to the perinatal culture and leadership programme. We are supporting staff to hold up their hands when things go wrong through the Freedom to Speak Up initiative. Our approach to tackling inequalities in maternity and neonatal care must be underpinned by evidence, research and—critically—working with women and their families. As my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood Forest (Michelle Welsh) pointed out, it is crucial that women’s voices, including black women’s voices, are heard.

My hon. Friend the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill mentioned funding for research. The National Institute for Health and Care Research has launched a £500 million funding call that challenges researchers and policymakers to come up with new ways of tackling maternity inequalities and poor pregnancy outcomes. The NIHR has also invited applications for funding of up to £500,000 for a research project to understand how biases in medical devices used during the pregnancy and neonatal period might be contributing to inequalities for women and babies.

NHSE is working closely with the NHS Race and Health Observatory on the outputs of the learning and action network programme, which aims to address inequalities for women and babies from black, Asian and other ethnic minority backgrounds. Local maternity and neonatal voices partnerships bring together the voices and experiences of women and families to improve maternity and neonatal care. More than a quarter of the partnership leads are from ethnic minority groups. Women’s voices must continue to be at the heart of our improvements to care.

I will be frank with colleagues: although the measures I have set out are important, I do not believe they will be enough to meet the scale of our ambitions. The Government are committed to ensuring that all women and babies, regardless of their ethnicity, background or location, receive the high-quality, equitable care they deserve. Many of these initiatives began under the previous Government, and although there has been some progress across maternity and neonatal care—for example, good progress has been made in reducing the number of stillbirths and neonatal deaths—we have much further to go to improve care and tackle inequalities.

Looking forward, we are clear that we want to see high-impact actions to tackle inequalities and racism in maternity services. Baroness Merron and the Secretary of State are working closely across the sector to identify the right actions and interventions to deliver the required change.

The shadow Minister asked about data collection. Data on women’s ethnic background is routinely collected by services at multiple points throughout maternity care. The data is used to disaggregate reporting of adverse outcomes, such as maternal mortality, by ethnicity. Differences by ethnicity are also reported as part of the Care Quality Commission’s annual survey, which asks a sample of pregnant women and new mothers about their experiences of NHS maternity services. NHS trusts are incentivised to collect this information through the maternity incentive scheme, which is a financial incentive programme that is designed to enhance maternity safety in NHS trusts. Safety action 2 of the maternity incentive scheme incentivises trusts to submit digital information, including ethnicity data, to the maternity services dataset.

Some of our processes will take time to implement, but we need to understand the immediate actions that can begin to deliver change here and now. I therefore reiterate our commitment to setting an explicit target to close the black and Asian maternal mortality gap. We must get this right. Targets must be evidence based, and that is why it is so important that the data is collected, as I have said, that our targets are women and baby-centred and, crucially, that the system is supported to meet the targets that are set. To this end, NHS England has undertaken a review of the evidence base and conducted extensive stakeholder engagement to identify the key drivers of inequalities for black and Asian women and babies—again ensuring that black women’s voices are heard.

[Dr Johnson]

The Minister talks about the importance of setting an achievable target and working on how it will be delivered, but the Government have now been at this for 10 months, and it was a manifesto commitment. Will she at least commit to a date by which it is likely to be set? Nothing will happen until there is a target and a plan. The Government are spending time deciding when to make a target, and all the while women are waiting.

[Ashley Dalton]

We are working at pace, ensuring that what we do is right and that it is achievable. The shadow Minister will be aware that the Government are developing a 10-year plan for health, and women’s health, including maternity health, will be at the centre of it. We want to ensure that whatever we put in place dovetails with all the other interventions and actions that the Government are putting forward.

The areas identified for intervention so far include the improper management of existing conditions, racism and discrimination, and access to care. We are clear that we want to see innovative and high-impact ideas that will shift the dial. We want to make sure not just that we are coming up with some sort of plan, but that it can be delivered and will be impactful.

Let me assure my hon. Friend the Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill that this issue keeps us up at night. I know that she will continue to hold us to account. I began my speech by referencing Amber’s story. She asked how she could put her trust in a system that let her down so badly, and I completely understand why she felt that way. It is our duty to make sure that women like Amber can trust the system with something as precious as their children, and to prevent what should be one of the most joyful days in their lives from becoming a tragedy.