Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Tuesday 21st October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Kinnock]

Again, I find it extraordinary that Conservative Members have the brass neck to ask those kinds of questions. They created the mess, and now they are criticising us—it is a bit like the arsonists heckling the firefighters. Patient satisfaction in general practice has risen from 67% last year to 75% this year, and the proportion of patients reporting difficulty contacting their practice has fallen from 18.7% in July 2024 to 10.6% in May 2025. We are just getting started, and I did not hear the hon. Lady welcome the investment.

[Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)]

10. What steps his Department is taking to support people with acute myeloid leukaemia.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Ashley Dalton)]

This Government are committed to improving survival for blood cancers, including acute myeloid leukaemia. We are raising awareness, delivering more research, and improving early diagnosis. Blood cancer is the third biggest cancer killer, and the fifth most common cancer in the UK. That is why we are committed to developing a national cancer plan, with patients at its heart, covering the cancer plan from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care. Having consulted with key stakeholders and patient groups, I confirm that that plan will be published early in the new year.

[Sir Gavin Williamson]

I thank the Minister for her response. My constituent Ruth Wake, who lives in Brewood, was tragically diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in January last year. She has gone through chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, and while she has made good process and is in remission, sadly the stem cell transplant has failed after nine and a half months. Under the current rules, if it fails in under a year she cannot have a second stem cell transplant. I know the pressures that the Minister is under in terms of her time, but my constituent has so little time. Could she look at this particular case, and also look at guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which were written over 12 years ago? Science and treatment have moved so rapidly, and I wonder if the Minister could look at both those points.

[Ashley Dalton]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question and offer my best wishes to his constituent Ruth in her treatment. I thank him for bringing her story to my attention. I really do appreciate—perhaps more than most—the urgency of the matter. Although I am unable to comment on individual cases, I understand that one of my ministerial colleagues will be writing to the right hon. Gentleman directly on this matter in the very near future.