Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of the Public Services Committee report entitled Homecare Medicines Services: an opportunity lost, published on 16 November 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
NHS England has been carrying out a desktop exercise to review homecare medicines services. The next steps are to bring together data from the desktop exercise with the House of Lords inquiry report recommendations to shape a programme of work on homecare medicines. The Department is carefully considering all the conclusions and recommendations made in the report and will respond in due course.
The Department is required to publish a response to the report by 16 January 2024.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Public Services Committee report entitled Homecare Medicines Services: an opportunity lost, published on 16 November 2023, whether her Department will review the regulatory regime for homecare medicines services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
NHS England has been carrying out a desktop exercise to review homecare medicines services. The next steps are to bring together data from the desktop exercise with the House of Lords inquiry report recommendations to shape a programme of work on homecare medicines. The Department is carefully considering all the conclusions and recommendations made in the report and will respond in due course.
The Department is required to publish a response to the report by 16 January 2024.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle inequalities in prostate cancer outcomes.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department is not currently taking specific steps with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle inequalities in prostate cancer outcomes, but is tackling inequalities for all cancer outcomes. Experience and access is a key focus for everyone as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. The NHS Long Term Plan states that ‘where appropriate every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support’.
A pancreatic cancer clinical audit, led by the Royal College of Surgeons, began in 2021, with the first outcomes expected in 2024. A key aim of the audit is to support National Health Service services to stimulate improvements in cancer detection, treatment and outcomes for patients, including improving survival rates.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press notice entitled Biggest prostate cancer screening trial in decades to start in UK published on 19 November 2023, what assessment her Department has made of the additional workforce capacity that will be required to deliver the trial.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR invests in the research delivery workforce, the facilities and capacity to support clinical trials. The NIHR Clinical Research Facilities and Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres support the delivery of early phase trials and the NIHR Clinical Research Network and Patient Recruitment Centres support delivery and participation in later phase clinical trials. The prostate cancer trial announced on 19 November will be run by Prostate Cancer UK with the Government contributing alongside others.
To maximise research participation, the NIHR provides the online platform ‘Be Part of Research’, which allows users to search for and register their interest in participating in the clinical trials of most interest and relevance to them. NIHR has also supported initiatives to increase diagnosis rates and participation in prostate cancer research by men from black and minority ethnic groups.
The recently announced TRANSFORM trial aims to save thousands of men each year by finding the best way to screen for prostate cancer. The trial will be United Kingdom-wide, although final decisions on specific locations are yet to be taken. Men will be invited to participate via their general practices. This study will also aim to address some of the inequalities that exist in prostate cancer diagnosis today by ensuring that one in 10 of the trial participants will be black men, who are three times overrepresented compared to the population of men aged 45 to 75 as based on 2021 census data.
The UK National Screening Committee will be reviewing the evidence that is published by this study. This will help to inform any future recommendation on creating a national screening programme for prostate cancer.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to (a) increase awareness of the (i) signs and (ii) risks of prostate cancer amongst at-risk groups and (b) ensure that national public awareness campaigns are tailored to underserved communities.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
NHS England takes steps to raise awareness of prostate cancer where there are opportunities to do so. For example, NHS England partners with Cancer Alliances, charities and local representatives to reach people through projects in the heart of their communities. Cancer Alliances have also been undertaking action to alert at-risk groups about prostate cancer. This is determined at a local level and so will vary depending on local needs and priorities.
Most NHS England campaigns aim to reach people aged 50 years and over and those from more deprived communities, where there is higher cancer incidence, as well as those more likely to experience health inequalities, such as those from Black and South Asian backgrounds. Campaign messages are shared across a range of channels used by people of all ages and demographics.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press notice entitled Biggest prostate cancer screening trial in decades to start in UK published on 19 November 2023, in which areas will the trial be carried out; and what steps her Department is taking to (a) ensure there is sufficient diagnostics capacity to deliver the additional screening in the trial areas in local areas to deliver increased screening and (b) encourage participation amongst (i) at-risk groups and (ii) black men.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR invests in the research delivery workforce, the facilities and capacity to support clinical trials. The NIHR Clinical Research Facilities and Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres support the delivery of early phase trials and the NIHR Clinical Research Network and Patient Recruitment Centres support delivery and participation in later phase clinical trials. The prostate cancer trial announced on 19 November will be run by Prostate Cancer UK with the Government contributing alongside others.
To maximise research participation, the NIHR provides the online platform ‘Be Part of Research’, which allows users to search for and register their interest in participating in the clinical trials of most interest and relevance to them. NIHR has also supported initiatives to increase diagnosis rates and participation in prostate cancer research by men from black and minority ethnic groups.
The recently announced TRANSFORM trial aims to save thousands of men each year by finding the best way to screen for prostate cancer. The trial will be United Kingdom-wide, although final decisions on specific locations are yet to be taken. Men will be invited to participate via their general practices. This study will also aim to address some of the inequalities that exist in prostate cancer diagnosis today by ensuring that one in 10 of the trial participants will be black men, who are three times overrepresented compared to the population of men aged 45 to 75 as based on 2021 census data.
The UK National Screening Committee will be reviewing the evidence that is published by this study. This will help to inform any future recommendation on creating a national screening programme for prostate cancer.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has provided recent guidance to officials in (a) his Department and (b) arms-length bodies for which his Department is responsible on potential (i) regulatory, (ii) civil and (iii) criminal liability they may face in connection with failing to adhere to (A) the Civil Service Code, (B) Annex 4.14 (Remedy) of Managing Public Money and (C) complaints procedures published by his Department or its arms-length bodies.
Answered by Mike Freer
All Civil Servants are bound by the Civil Service Code. This standard, and other standards of behaviour and conduct expected from employees are set out in the Conduct policy. A failure to adhere to the required standard of conduct would be handled under the Disciplinary policy. Arm’s-length bodies staffed by public servants have appropriate conduct policies in place. The relevant policies are accessible to staff, including through departmental and organisational intranets. The department’s internal delegations confirm that all expenditure must be in accordance with HMT’s Managing Public Money.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to tackle regional variation in (a) rates of early detection and (b) diagnostic waiting times for prostate cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Reducing inequalities and variation in cancer waiting times and treatment, including for prostate cancer is a priority for the Government as is increasing early cancer diagnosis, as this is a key contributor to reducing cancer health inequalities.
Early cancer diagnosis is one of the five clinical areas of focus in NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 approach to reducing health inequalities. Efforts are focused on the diagnosing 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028 as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
To support this, NHS England introduced the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) which sets a target of maximum 28 day wait from urgent suspected general practitioner or screening referral to patients being told they have cancer, or that cancer is ruled out. The FDS also intends to reduce unwarranted variation in England by understanding how long it is taking people to receive a diagnosis or ‘all clear’ for cancer. To achieve this target, NHS England has streamlined cancer pathways, including implementing a best-timed prostate cancer diagnostic pathway so that those suspected of prostate cancer receive a multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging scan first, which ensures only those men most at-risk undergo an invasive biopsy.
On 24 January 2023, the Government announced that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy to consider the six conditions, including cancer, that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England, including cancer. The Major Conditions Strategy will apply a geographical lens to each condition to address regional disparities in health outcomes, supporting the levelling up mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030. We published the Major Conditions Strategy Case for Change and Our Strategic Framework on 14 August 2023 which sets out our approach to making the choiover the next five years that will deliver the most value in facing the health challenges of today and of the decades ahead, including for cancer.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many consultant urologists there are in (a) Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, (b) NHS Cheshire and Merseyside and (c) England.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) consultant urologists working in National Health Service trusts and core organisations within Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, and England, as of August 2023:
Body | FTE, August 2023 |
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | 11 |
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside | 50 |
England | 1,061 |
Source: NHS Digital Hospital and Community Health Service Workforce Statistics
Notes:
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has provided recent guidance to officials in (a) his Department and (b) other arms length bodies for which his Department is responsible on (i) regulatory, (ii) civil and (iii) criminal liability they may face for any failure to provide redress in accordance with the guidance entitled Remedy set out in annex 4.14 to Managing Public Money published on 4 May 2023.
Answered by Mike Freer
All Civil Servants are bound by the Civil Service Code. This standard, and other standards of behaviour and conduct expected from employees are set out in the Conduct policy. A failure to adhere to the required standard of conduct would be handled under the Disciplinary policy. Arm’s-length bodies staffed by public servants have appropriate conduct policies in place. The relevant policies are accessible to staff, including through departmental and organisational intranets. The department’s internal delegations confirm that all expenditure must be in accordance with HMT’s Managing Public Money.