Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 54187 on Electric Vehicles: Charging Points, how much of the £200 million allocated in the Autumn Budget 2024 has been spent in each month to date.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The £200m to accelerate EV chargepoint roll out announced at Autumn Budget 2024 will be invested in the financial year 2025/26 (April 2025 to March 2026) to support local, en-route and home and workplace charging. At the end of May 2025 no payments had yet been made.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of China's rare earth export restrictions on the defence sector's supply chain.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The (Ministry of Defence) MOD is actively engaged in de-risking critical defence supply chain vulnerabilities, working collaboratively across Government, with industry and our international partners, including NATO, to mitigate risks.
The Department recognises China's influence in global Rare Earth Element (REE) supply chains and the wide-ranging applications of REEs in the defence supply chain. MOD's initial assessment is that China's REE export restrictions pose a low risk to defence outputs at present. But we will keep this under constant 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, what steps the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is taking to ensure that commercial clinical trials take place in the UK.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has announced significant progress in modernising the United Kingdom’s clinical trials framework, marking the most substantial update in two decades. The announcement, made on International Clinical Trials Day, highlights a shift toward a more efficient, inclusive, and participant-focused regulatory system.
The new regulations, developed in partnership with the Health Research Authority and shaped by feedback from patients, researchers, clinicians, and industry, will come into full effect in April 2026 following a 12-month implementation period.
The reforms aim to streamline clinical trial approvals and place participants at the heart of trial design. Already, the MHRA has embedded improvements into its standard operations, with 100% of clinical trial applications processed within statutory timelines since September 2023. The average time for Combined Review determinations was just 40 days in March 2025, with all approvals completed within 60 days.
We are working with system partners to ensure that the whole process of Clinical Trials delivers as needed for all to encourage research in the UK.
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, whether the Life Sciences Sector Plan will include medical technology.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Medical technology (MedTech) is a key pillar of the forthcoming Life Sciences Sector Plan, alongside the pharmaceutical sector. The United Kingdom’s MedTech industry employs approximately 154,000 people, underscoring its significant contribution to the economy. Through the Life Sciences Sector Plan and the broader Industrial Strategy, the Government will take targeted and concerted action to unlock growth. The plan will focus on enabling world-class research and development, making the United Kingdom a leading destination to start, scale, and invest in life sciences, and driving innovation and reform across the healthcare system.
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 steps he plans to take through the NHS 10 Year Plan to improve early diagnosis in (a) ovarian cancer and (b) other women’s health conditions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to improving early diagnosis of all cancer types, including ovarian cancer.
The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver the three big shifts our National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community; from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention. All of these are relevant to improving early diagnosis and support for women’s health conditions in all parts of the country.
As a first step, the NHS is now delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to ensure early diagnosis and faster treatment, including for women with ovarian cancer. NHS England is continuing the roll out of community diagnostic centres to ensure that patients can access the diagnostic tests they need as quickly as possible. The NHS is also improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred, including non-specific symptom pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway. Combined, these interventions will help to improve the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer and reduce misdiagnosis, with further actions to be outlined in the forthcoming National Cancer Plan, which will follow the 10-Year Health Plan.
The Department is also committed to improving the diagnosis of women’s health conditions more broadly by taking urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the Elective Reform Plan, supporting innovative models offering patients care closer to home, and by piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres. Moreover, the Department supports the use of clinical guidelines that help healthcare professionals identify and manage these conditions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidelines on a range of women’s health conditions, including heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and menopause.
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 steps he is taking to plan the (a) resources and (b) workforce capacity required for new (i) medical technologies and (ii) medicines.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises that the successful adoption of new medical technology and medicines depends on robust planning for both resources and workforce capacity. We are taking a multi-pronged approach through the 10-Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan (LSSP) to ensure that the health system will be equipped to deliver at scale, and incentives are in place for the National Health Service and industry to optimise the uptake of innovative medical technology and medicines.
The NHS is actively investing in, and implementing, digital infrastructure to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accessibility of healthcare services. One of the three big shifts of the 10-Year Health Plan is from analogue to digital, and we will harness the digital revolution for the benefit of patients and staff. The Government is investing more than £2 billion into NHS technology and digital capabilities, to run essential services and drive NHS productivity improvements. This will free up staff time, ensure all trusts have electronic records, improve cyber security, and enhance patient access via the NHS App.
The Government’s Medical Technology Strategy instigated work to improve the innovation and procurement pathways. The LSSP and 10-Year Health Plan will build on this progress, and we will set out our plans shortly. This will also include investment in digital infrastructure and policy plans for the modernisation of procurement pathways to accelerate the safe and effective deployment of new medical technologies.
Regarding workforce capacity, the Department will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again. This will ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need, when they need it.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled General terms for the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Economic Prosperity Deal, published on 9 May 2025, whether he will publish a strategic approach on ongoing trade negotiations with the United States.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
On 8 May, we concluded a landmark economic deal with the US. The US has committed to further negotiations to tackle barriers to trade not related to tariffs and that have the potential to cut red tape for exporters. There will now be a process of formal negotiations with the US on a binding legal framework.
MPs will have the chance to scrutinise the treaty when it is agreed and presented to the House.
We will continue to act in Britain’s national interest – for workers, for business and for families.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled General terms for the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Economic Prosperity Deal, published on 9 May 2025, what information his Department will share with Parliament on (a) agricultural trade and (b) digital trade negotiations.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is not seeking to change the process of the ratification of any treaty. MPs will have the chance to scrutinise the treaty when it is agreed and presented to the House. This includes detail on agricultural trade and digital trade negotiations.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 12 May 2025 to Question 49854 on Electric Vehicles: Charging Points, how much of the funding allocated for charging infrastructure in the Autumn Budget 2024 has been spent; and how that money has been spent.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The £200m to accelerate EV chargepoint roll out announced at Autumn Budget 2024 will be invested in the financial year 2025/26 (April 2025 to March 2026) to support local, en-route, and home and workplace charging.
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, whether his Department has made an assessment of the regional variation in GP direct access to brain MRI and CT head scans.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Diagnostic Imaging Data set (DID) provides data on where a test was requested via GP Direct Access (GPDA). This information is available for the following tests:
- chest X-rays;
- computed tomography chest scans;
- computed tomography abdomen and pelvis scans;
- ultrasounds for the abdomen and pelvis; and
- brain magnetic resonance imaging.
Data for computed tomography head scans is not included as part of the DID, under the current collection. Further information on the DID is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/diagnostic-imaging-dataset/
The data shows that for the five tests where data on GPDA referral information is collected, the total number of GPDA tests has increased by 23% or 695,000 tests when comparing activity in 2023/24, the latest 12 months for which data is available, and 2021/22, the financial year prior to the publication of the draft GPDA guidance in November 2022. For brain magnetic resonance imaging specifically, the number of GP Direct Access tests increased by 33% or 32,000 tests between 2021/22 and 2023/4.
Assessments of variation in the referral rates of each test were conducted prior to the publication of the guidance and are set out in the published data linked above. The data shows there is still variation in referral rates.
NHS England is undertaking an extensive programme of communications and engagement to improve awareness of the GPDA guidance, including general practice webinars, dissemination through key partner organisations, inclusion with National Health Service planning guidance, and press releases.
We know there is further to go to ensure all parts of the country are using this scheme where appropriate and we are working to see these approaches adopted on a much wider scale.