Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Tumour-infiltrating Lymphocytes therapy has been licenced in the UK.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has not licenced any medicines that can be described as tumour infiltrating lymphocyte therapy.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the Children and Young People’s Cancer Taskforce to report.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce will be engaging with experts from across the sector, from clinicians, researchers, advocates, and those with lived experience, and its membership will also be reflective of diverse patient needs. The taskforce is committed to considering patient experience alongside clinical care to improve the outcomes and experiences of children and young people with cancer and their families.
Department officials are working with chairs of the taskforce to develop the Terms of Reference ahead of the first meeting, currently planned for March 2025. The taskforce will consider the most appropriate dissemination routes or publication channels for taskforce materials in due course.
We expect the taskforce to run for six months with the possibility of extension. The taskforce will feed into, and report in line with the publication of the National Cancer Plan.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2025 to Question 26821 on Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce, whether the taskforce plans to engage with (a) families with lived experience of childhood cancer, (b) children’s cancer charities and (c) other representative groups.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce will be engaging with experts from across the sector, from clinicians, researchers, advocates, and those with lived experience, and its membership will also be reflective of diverse patient needs. The taskforce is committed to considering patient experience alongside clinical care to improve the outcomes and experiences of children and young people with cancer and their families.
Department officials are working with chairs of the taskforce to develop the Terms of Reference ahead of the first meeting, currently planned for March 2025. The taskforce will consider the most appropriate dissemination routes or publication channels for taskforce materials in due course.
We expect the taskforce to run for six months with the possibility of extension. The taskforce will feed into, and report in line with the publication of the National Cancer Plan.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the terms of reference will be for the Children and Young People’s Cancer Taskforce.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce will be engaging with experts from across the sector, from clinicians, researchers, advocates, and those with lived experience, and its membership will also be reflective of diverse patient needs. The taskforce is committed to considering patient experience alongside clinical care to improve the outcomes and experiences of children and young people with cancer and their families.
Department officials are working with chairs of the taskforce to develop the Terms of Reference ahead of the first meeting, currently planned for March 2025. The taskforce will consider the most appropriate dissemination routes or publication channels for taskforce materials in due course.
We expect the taskforce to run for six months with the possibility of extension. The taskforce will feed into, and report in line with the publication of the National Cancer Plan.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress the Children and Young People's Cancer Taskforce has made.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Department will be relaunching the Children and Young People’s Cancer Taskforce in the coming weeks. Dame Caroline Dinenage and Professor Darren Hargrave have been appointed as its co-chairs, alongside Dr Sharna Shanmugavadivel as vice-chair.
The taskforce will examine clinical and non-clinical ways to improve outcomes and patient experience for children and young people with cancer. This will feed into the Department’s wider work on the national cancer plan.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average time period is for issuing payments via the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Between November 2021 and January 2025, the average time period for issuing payments following confirmation of a successful claim was 46 calendar days.
A payment can only be made once bank details and identification verification has been received from the claimant. Once received, the NHS Business Services Authority operates a 10-working day service level agreement for the payment to be processed.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of applications to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (a) are pending, (b) have been paid and (c) have been refused.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Between 1 November 2021 and 17 January 2025, the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme has received 19,115 claims. Of these, 7,159, or 37% of claims, are awaiting resolution, 208, or 1% of claims, have been awarded, and 11,748, or 61% of claims, have not been awarded a payment.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to (a) review and (b) update the National Radiological Protection Board report published on 4 January 1988.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The National Radiological Protection Board report that was published in 1988 has been updated a further three times. The publications are available at the following link:
A summary of the fourth analysis published in 2022 is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nuclear-weapons-test-participants-study/plan-for-the-fourth-analysis-of-the-nuclear-weapons-test-participants-study
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to automatically enrol eligible families in the NHS Healthy Start programme.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Healthy Start scheme was introduced in 2006 to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies and young children under four from very low-income households. It can be used to buy, or put towards the cost of, fruit, vegetables, pulses, milk and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries have access to free Healthy Start Vitamins for pregnant women and children aged under four.
Healthy Start now supports over 353,000 beneficiaries. This figure is higher than the previous paper voucher scheme.
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. All applicants to the Healthy Start scheme, where they meet the eligibility criteria, must accept the terms and conditions of the prepaid card at the point of application. As the prepaid card is a financial product and cannot be issued without the applicant accepting these terms, NHS BSA is not able to automatically provide eligible families with a prepaid card. However, the Healthy Start scheme is kept under review we are exploring all viable routes to improve uptake.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average weekly payment to beneficiaries on the Healthy Start scheme was in June 2024.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The average weekly payment to beneficiaries on the Healthy Start scheme in June 2024 was £5.68.