Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total amount spent by the NHS on radiotherapy services in England in the past year, broken down by (1) region, and (2) NHS trust.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst data for the past year is not yet available, the latest published data on radiotherapy costs is from the National Health Service national cost collection for 2021/22, where spend is reported as £550 million. More detailed data by the NHS trusts is also available at the NHS website, in an online only format.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to enable evaluation of health programmes and investments to account for productivity benefits, in line with guidance issued in the Green Book.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has well-established policies and mechanisms in place to ensure health programmes and investments are subject to systematic evaluation at key stages in their lifecycle, in accordance with HM Treasury’s business case guidance. This includes reviewing quantitative and qualitative evidence on whether approved health projects achieve their objectives and deliver the promised benefits within the agreed budget, timescale, and scope. Lessons from post-project evaluation are widely disseminated, to support better investment decisions in future, and more robustly developed business cases.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to support NHS England’s pilot to reduce the faecal immunochemical test threshold for the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme from 120µg/g to 80µg/g; and whether they have had discussions with NHS England regarding geographical areas for the pilot.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to improving the NHS Bowel Screening programme, and welcome NHS England’s plans for pilot areas, which will reduce the faecal immunochemical test (FIT) down to 80µg/g. NHS England plans to publish an Expression of Interest to give all bowel screening services, and their partner symptomatic endoscopy providers, an opportunity to submit their interest in becoming a FIT@80 pilot site. These pilot sites are planned to be selected and launched later in 2024/25, and attention will be paid to ensure there is regional variation across the pilot sites selected.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards ensuring that people with cancer who require radiotherapy treatment can start treatment within their target of 31 days.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are seeing continued high levels of urgent cancer referrals, with over 12,000 urgent referrals seen for suspected cancer per working day in March 2024, compared to approximately 9,000 in March 2019. In March 2023, 89.7% of patients received a first or subsequent radiotherapy treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat, which is 0.6% higher than last year. From March 2023/24, 127,336 people received a first or subsequent radiotherapy treatment, which is 1,359 more than the previous year.
The Government continues to work with NHS England on implementing the Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care, and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.
We are building our cancer workforce. In January 2024 there were over 35,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in the cancer workforce, an increase of over 13,300, or 60.7% since January 2010. This includes over 8,100 FTE consultants in January 2024, an increase of over 3,300, or 69.6% since January 2010.
Since 2016, the Department has invested £162 million into cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment to replace or upgrade more than 100 radiotherapy treatment machines, so we can deliver the best possible outcomes for patients. From April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines sits with local systems.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to (1) the recent Royal College of Radiologists’ Radiotherapy Briefing, published in May, and (2) the HERO (Health Economics in Radiation Oncology) report by the UK Radiotherapy Board, published on 2 May, what is their current assessment of the state of radiotherapy services in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
According to the latest data, of those 10,328 cancer patients referred for first or subsequent treatment for radiotherapy in March 2024, 89.7% were treated within 31 days. Since 2016, there has been significant investment in radiotherapy equipment, so that every radiotherapy provider had access to modern, cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment, enabling the rollout of new techniques like stereotactic ablative radiotherapy. The total central investment made between 2016 and 2021 was £162 million, and enabled the replacement or upgrade of approximately 100 radiotherapy treatment machines. This is investment on top of that committed by National Health Service trusts, either from their own capital budgets or via donations.
From April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines sits with local systems. As outlined in the 2024/25 NHS Planning Guidance, NHS England is providing over £266 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances, to support delivery of the operational priorities for cancer. This is supported by the 2021 Spending Review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the NHS.
The Department is working closely with NHS England to make sure we have the right workforce with the right skills up and down the country. We are building our cancer workforce. In January 2024 there were over 35,200 full-time equivalent staff in the cancer workforce, an increase of over 13,300, or 60.7% since January 2010.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to meet their target of 96 per cent of cancer patients receiving treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Tackling cancer is a key priority for the Government. Ministers and officials continue to work closely with NHS England to increase positive outcomes for all cancer types. The Government has allocated an additional £8 billion across this Spending Review period, to increase capacity and support elective recovery.
As outlined in the 2024/25 NHS Planning Guidance, NHS England are providing over £266 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances to support delivery of the operational priorities for cancer, increasing and prioritising diagnostic and treatment capacity.
We are building our cancer workforce. In January 2024 there were over 35,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in the cancer workforce, an increase of over 13,300, or 60.7%, since January 2010. This includes over 8,100 FTE consultants in January 2024, an increase of over 3,300, or 69.6%, since January 2010.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Royal College of Radiologists report Clinical Radiology Workforce Census 2022, published on 8 June 2023, what steps they will take to address the shortfall in clinical oncologists in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. It will put the workforce on a sustainable footing for the long term.
We are building our cancer workforce. In January 2024 there were over 35,200 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in the cancer workforce, an increase of over 13,300, or 60.7% since January 2010.
Regarding clinical oncology specifically, as of January 2024, there are currently over 1,600 FTE doctors working in the speciality of clinical oncology in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England. This is 2.2% more than last year, 27.7% more than 2019, and 66.5% more than in 2010. This includes over 900 FTE consultants. This is 5.1% more than last year, 22.0% more than in 2019, and 80.2% more than in 2010.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the HERO (Health Economics in Radiation Oncology) study published by the UK Radiotherapy Board, which is the first report to estimate the cost of radiotherapy services in England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2016, there has been significant investment in radiotherapy equipment, so that every radiotherapy provider had access to modern, cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment, enabling the rollout of new techniques like stereotactic ablative radiotherapy. The total central investment made between 2016 and 2021 was £162 million, and enabled the replacement or upgrade of approximately 100 radiotherapy treatment machines. This is investment on top of that committed by National Health Service trusts, either from their own capital budgets or via donations. From April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines sits with local systems. This is supported by the 2021 spending review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the NHS.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current cost of radiotherapy services in England, following the publication of the HERO (Health Economics in Radiation Oncology) report by the UK Radiotherapy Board.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2016, there has been significant investment in radiotherapy equipment, so that every radiotherapy provider had access to modern, cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment, enabling the rollout of new techniques like stereotactic ablative radiotherapy. The total central investment made between 2016 and 2021 was £162 million, and enabled the replacement or upgrade of approximately 100 radiotherapy treatment machines. This is investment on top of that committed by National Health Service trusts, either from their own capital budgets or via donations. From April 2022, the responsibility for investing in new radiotherapy machines sits with local systems. This is supported by the 2021 spending review, which set aside £12 billion in operational capital for the NHS.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the the UK Nutrient Profiling Model 2018 review, when they plan to implement an updated version of the Nutrient Profiling Model.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Nutrient Profiling Model (NPM) is a tool that can underpin policy and implements dietary recommendations.
The United Kingdom NPM was first developed by the Food Standards Agency in 2004 to 2005 (UK 2004/5 NPM). The first Childhood Obesity Plan (2016) committed Public Health England to review the UK 2004/5 NPM and align it to the latest dietary recommendations. A robust and transparent process was undertaken to update the model, with an Independent Expert Group to provide oversight and scientific scrutiny. In 2018, as part of the process, a 12-week public consultation on the modifications made to the current UK 2004/5 NPM took place. The final version will be published in due course.
Any application of the updated NPM in a policy would be subject to normal policy making and consultation processes and would be accompanied by technical guidance to support its use and implementation. Stakeholders and interested parties would have an opportunity to comment on developing work as part of that process.