Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Integrated Care Board cuts on the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire West ICB.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has asked the integrated care boards (ICBs) to act as main strategic commissioners of health and care services and to reduce the duplication of responsibilities within their structure, to achieve a 50% cost reduction in their running cost allowance. NHS England provided additional guidance to the ICBs, National Health Service trusts, and NHS foundation trusts on 1 April 2025, and tasked ICBs with developing plans by the end of May setting out how they will manage their resources to deliver across their priorities.
NHS England will be working closely with the ICBs to support the development of these plans, ensuring that their implementation reduces duplication and supports patient care. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/
No specific impact assessment has been carried out with regards to the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of proposed Integrated Care Board cuts on Community Diagnostic Centres.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of the necessary changes to support the National Health Service to recover, NHS England has indicated that integrated care boards (ICBs) should reduce in size. The Government is supportive of NHS England’s decision and the necessary choices that are needed to get the NHS back on its feet. We expect ICBs to continue to deliver their responsibilities, including the planning and delivery of health and care services in community diagnostic centres. Further detail on the future of ICBs was provided in a letter issued to the ICBs, NHS trusts, and NHS foundation trusts on 1 April 2025. This letter is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the report by Cancer Research UK entitled Cancer in the UK 2025: socioeconomic deprivation, published on 21 February 2025; and what steps he is taking to help reduce the potential impact of socioeconomic deprivation on (a) the time taken to diagnose and (b) survival rates for cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We welcome Cancer Research UK’s report on socioeconomic deprivation and will consider its findings as we develop a new National Cancer Plan. As part of this, my Department is working closely with individuals, professionals and organisations, including Cancer Research UK, to improve outcomes and address inequalities.
To diagnose lung cancer earlier and boost survival rates, we are rolling out a national Lung Cancer Screening Programme, targeted at those aged between 55 and 74 years old with a history of smoking. This has led to over 3,000 more lung cancers being diagnosed at an early stage, with the biggest gains in early diagnosis rates among those living in the most deprived areas. We will build on these recent successes with the further roll out of the Lung Cancer Screening Programme.
NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 approach informs current action to reduce healthcare inequalities, including in early cancer diagnosis. To achieve this, we are improving public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlining referral routes, and increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres. In addition, the National Health Service is now delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, during our first year in government as the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and faster treatment.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 10 of the report by Cancer Research UK entitled Cancer in the UK 2025: Socioeconomic Deprivation, published in February 2025, what steps he is taking to increase the 5-year net survival rate for lung cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We welcome Cancer Research UK’s report on socioeconomic deprivation and will consider its findings as we develop a new National Cancer Plan. As part of this, my Department is working closely with individuals, professionals and organisations, including Cancer Research UK, to improve outcomes and address inequalities.
To diagnose lung cancer earlier and boost survival rates, we are rolling out a national Lung Cancer Screening Programme, targeted at those aged between 55 and 74 years old with a history of smoking. This has led to over 3,000 more lung cancers being diagnosed at an early stage, with the biggest gains in early diagnosis rates among those living in the most deprived areas. We will build on these recent successes with the further roll out of the Lung Cancer Screening Programme.
NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 approach informs current action to reduce healthcare inequalities, including in early cancer diagnosis. To achieve this, we are improving public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlining referral routes, and increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres. In addition, the National Health Service is now delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, during our first year in government as the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and faster treatment.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral contribution by the Prime Minister in response to the Leader of the Opposition on 2 April 2025, how 1,000 new GPs were recruited.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Previously, primary care networks were limited in how they could use their funding, but now they can hire recently qualified doctors through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), a practical solution which is boosting general practitioner (GP) numbers across the country.
Data on the number of recently qualified GPs for which primary care networks are claiming reimbursement via the ARRS was published by NHS England on 7 April 2025. Since 1 October 2024, 1,503 GPs were recruited through the scheme.
The recruitment boost, part of the Government’s Plan for Change, will help to ease pressure on GPs and cut waiting times. Alongside changes to the GP Contract for 2025/26, these additional GPs will help end the 8.00am scramble for appointments which so many patients currently endure every day.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Cancer52's report entitled, Improving diagnosis: Patient and clinician perspectives on increasing early diagnosis in rare and less common cancers, published in February 2025, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a target that 75% of children and young people with cancer are diagnosed within ten days of first symptom presentation to a clinician.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, so that more patients survive, including children, teenagers, and young adults.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has set out detailed guidance for general practitioners on the symptoms of cancer in children and young people, recommending referral within 48 hours for those presenting with a range of potential cancer symptoms.
The Department is also taking steps to improve waiting times for cancer diagnosis and treatment across all cancer patient groups, including children and young people. This will be achieved by delivering an extra 40,000 scans, appointments, and operations each week to ensure that patients are seen and treated as quickly as possible.
To further support timely investigation after referral, we are working with the NHS to maximise the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer.
On 4 February 2025, the Department relaunched the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce. The taskforce will explore a range of issues, including early detection and diagnosis, in order to identify improvements for this patient group.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to respond to the hon. Member for Wokingham in relation to the correspondence of 5 February 2025 from the Leader of the House on the number of newly-qualified GPs employed under the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme GP Sum in each integrated care board since August 2024.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I replied to the hon. Member on 4 April 2025.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the National Cancer Plan will be funded; and whether the funding will include ring-fenced resources specifically for children's and young people's cancers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan will focus on how we make things better for patients through reforming the cancer sector and improving efficiency, building on the steps announced in the Elective Reform Plan. This will support a more scrupulous and effective use of funds in the future.
At the 2024 Autumn Budget, the Government made nearly £26 billion available to the health and care system over two years, to fix the foundations of our broken National Health Service. We will review cancer funding, including funding for children and young people’s cancers, as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to Question 35076 tabled by the hon. Member for Wokingham on 3 March 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 7 April 2025 to Question 35076.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the abolition of NHS England on funding for integrated care boards.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers and senior Department officials will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, as we undertake the integration of NHS England and the Department, to ensure that the expected savings will be reinvested in frontline services to deliver better care for patients.
As part of the necessary changes to support the National Health Service to recover, NHS England has also indicated that integrated care boards (ICBs) should reduce in size. We will work with the NHS to make the necessary choices that are needed to get the NHS back on its feet.
In a letter from Sir Jim Mackey to all ICBs and NHS trusts and foundation trusts on 1 April 2025, NHS England published further detail on the future of the ICBs. This letter is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/