Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the completeness and consistency of data recorded on people diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in NHS trusts.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Cancer Plan, what progress his Department has made on defining and counting recurrent breast cancers.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, from what date the National Institute of Clinical Excellence will be authorised to apply an increased cost-effectiveness threshold of £25,000 - £35,000 per quality-adjusted life year.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government intends to direct the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to apply the new cost-effectiveness threshold increase from April.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what analysis his department has undertaken of the staffing and capacity pressures identified in the Amos Review's interim report, and what options are being examined to support maternity and neonatal units facing these challenges.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the retention and recruitment challenges that face the National Health Service. This includes work in maternity and neonatal services to introduce a midwifery and nursing retention self-assessment tool, mentoring schemes, a Graduate Guarantee that has already delivered 700 additional roles for newly qualified midwives, and funded speciality training for neonatal nurses to have the additional skills they need to care for critically ill babies. In addition, the Department’s upcoming workforce plan will make sure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Baroness Amos’ interim report details insights gathered so far in the national independent investigation into NHS maternity and neonatal care. Evidence is still being collected and analysed, and a coherent single set of national recommendations will be published in June. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, will chair a new National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce that will address the interim insights and final recommendations of the investigation, forming them into a national action plan to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what will the independent review of the prevalence of and support for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism be used for.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to set out a timeline for the process and completion of the independent review of the prevalence of and support for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism announced on 4 December 2025.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of expected outcomes for babies with spinal muscular atrophy living in areas (a) included in the in-service evaluation of newborn screening for SMA and (b) not included in the in-service evaluation.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the challenges faced by those living with rare diseases and their families and is committed to improving outcomes. This is why the National Health Service is planning a large-scale in-service evaluation (ISE) of screening for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in newborn screening services. This ISE is due to start in January 2027 and will offer screening to over 400,000 babies.
As the ISE is still in the planning stages, the Department has not yet made a comparative assessment of expected outcomes for babies identified through the evaluation compared with babies born in areas not included in the evaluation.
Babies born outside the evaluation would continue to receive the current standard of care, including access to specialist clinical assessment and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved treatments where clinically appropriate. Clinical decisions for babies with suspected or confirmed SMA are made by specialist clinicians, regardless of where a child is born.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has asked NHS England to investigate whether it would be appropriate and feasible for the ISE to be rolled out across the whole of England.
Any screening programme that would impact approximately 650,000 babies per year in the UK must be underpinned by high quality robust evidence that demonstrates that screening will do more good than harm. The ISE will help inform a future UK National Screening Committee recommendation on whether screening for SMA should be added to the NHS Newborn Blood Spot Screening Programme.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average time taken was for Integrated Care Boards to respond to correspondence from hon. Members in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration his department has given to the Amos Review's interim report's findings that some women and families felt their concerns were not listened to during pregnancy and labour, and how this will inform future policy development.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In her interim report, Baroness Amos has identified a key issue of women and families being disregarded and not listened to during pregnancy and labour, repeatedly hearing from women and families about a lack of transparency, clear communication, and learning when things went wrong.
Unfortunately, too many women are not listened to by the National Health Service, and the Government has been clear that it is unacceptable. Health professionals need to listen to women and respond appropriately, and that is why we introduced Jess’s Rule and are rolling out Martha’s Rule to every acute hospital, which ensure patients get their voices heard and their concerns aren’t dismissed. We're putting women's voices at the heart of our renewed Women's Health Strategy, which will be published soon.
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s maternity and neonatal taskforce will address the recommendations from the investigation when they are published in June, through the development of a national action plan. The taskforce will also hold the system to account for improving outcomes and experiences for women and babies. Families’ voices will be central to the taskforce.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on the review of early access to medicines.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Early Access to Medicines Scheme (EAMS), is an existing pathway across the regulatory and access system designed to support innovative treatments being available to patients who need them earlier in the development cycle, outside of a clinical trial. The Government is collaborating across the regulatory system to continuously review the effectiveness of these pathways.
Pharmaceutical companies may also put in place arrangements to provide early access to medicines outside EAMS. Working with colleagues at NHS England, the Department is continuing to engage with companies and patient groups regarding early access schemes that are enabled by manufacturers providing free of charge medicines, in advance of any recommendation from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. We are presently working to get a fuller picture of the costs of, and barriers to, and opportunities for early access schemes being offered by National Health Service trusts.