Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 ensure that regions where (a) cancer outcomes are poorer and (b) research infrastructure is historically underfunded receive a fair share of national cancer research investment and clinical trial opportunities.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to funding health and care research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) across England, and to ensuring that the research we support is inclusive and representative of the populations we serve. We know that cancer survival rates are generally lower in people living in more deprived areas.
In 2024, the NIHR made equity, diversity, and inclusion a condition of funding for all domestic research awards. This means applicants must demonstrate how their research will contribute towards the NIHR’s mission to reduce health and care inequalities, with a focus on participant inclusion from diverse populations of the United Kingdom.
NIHR research infrastructure has national coverage across the whole of England. Our infrastructure schemes aim to build research capacity and capability across the country across all geographies and settings. In line with prior commitments, the Department has increased funding for research infrastructure schemes delivering cancer research outside the Greater South East, including Biomedical Research Centres, Clinical Research Facilities, and HealthTech Research Centres.
Through the NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN), the NIHR supports 100% of National Health Service trusts in England to deliver research, operating across 12 regions throughout the country. From 2026/27, the RDN will adopt a new national funding model for NHS support costs and research delivery. This will be a consistent, nationally agreed funding distribution model across all regions of England and will reduce regional variations of health research delivery investment, and better enable clinical trial opportunities across all areas, including underserved areas and settings.
The NIHR also provides an online service called Be Part of Research which promotes participation in health and social care research by allowing users to search for relevant studies and register their interest. This makes it easier for people to find and take part in health and care research that is relevant to them.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 potential impact of expanding prehabilitation and rehabilitation services in cancer care on (a) NHS costs and (b) patient outcomes.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England are taking a number of steps to support systems to deliver cost-effective, lifesaving prehabilitation and rehabilitation services. Local planning for prehabilitation and rehabilitation services is devolved to National Health Service trusts and Cancer Alliances in their locality.
NHS England has highlighted the positive impact of efficient prehabilitation and rehabilitation on cancer outcomes and the potential for them to lead to cost savings. The PRosPer Cancer Prehabilitation and Rehabilitation learning programme, launched in partnership between NHS England and Macmillan Cancer support, aims to support allied health professionals and the wider healthcare workforce in developing their skills in providing personalised care, prehabilitation, and rehabilitation in the cancer pathway.
The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will look at how we can improve patient outcomes and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, including prehabilitation and rehabilitation services where appropriate.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the National Cancer Plan will include measures to expand innovations in cancer screening initiatives to ensure more people from deprived areas are encouraged to participate.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Early diagnosis is a key focus of the National Cancer Plan, which will build on the shifts in care set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, to diagnose cancers earlier. Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we will make it easier for people to access cancer screening, diagnostics, and treatment in patients’ local areas, backed by the latest technology to drive up this country’s cancer survival rates. We will increase participation in screening programmes by taking innovative approaches like self-sampling for cervical screening and digital booking.
The National Cancer Plan, to be published later this year, will include further details on how we will speed up diagnosis, as well as how we will prioritise screening programmes and improve participation, including participation from people in deprived areas.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to implement automatic enrolment into stop smoking support at (a) A&E departments, (b) cancer screening appointments, (c) mental health services and (d) other NHS touchpoints (i) across Yorkshire and (ii) nationally.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in our 10-Year Health Plan for England, we are committed to ensuring all hospitals integrate ‘opt-out’ smoking cessation interventions into routine care. As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England has prioritised and put new funding out to integrated care boards (ICBs), which includes Humber and Yorkshire ICB, South Yorkshire ICB and West Yorkshire ICB, for the rollout of tobacco dependence services in hospital settings, including acute and mental health inpatient settings and maternity services. Future funding decisions are subject to the Spending Review process.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service Commissioner for England will be formally appointed.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The House of Commons leads on the recruitment of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service Commissioner. We expect that the formal appointment will be made shortly.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of support for women in making informed choices about (a) hormonal and (b) non-hormonal treatment options for (i) menstrual and (ii) reproductive health.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the importance of women and girls being able to access adequate information and care for menstrual health conditions and reproductive health.
The women’s health area on the National Health Service website brings together over 100 health topics including pages on heavy periods, endometriosis, adenomyosis, and contraception. This provides women with information on hormonal and non-hormonal treatment options for menstrual health conditions, and information on the different types of hormonal and non-hormonal contraception methods, including where to get them and how well they work at preventing pregnancy.
NHS England has also developed a shared decision tool to help women and general practitioners make decisions about the best treatments for heavy menstrual bleeding. This is available at the following link:
Clinical guidelines also support healthcare professionals to provide evidence-based care. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidelines on a range of women’s health topics, including heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and contraception, and has also published a guideline on shared decision making.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 (a) reduce the sex and gender gap in participants for (i) healthcare research and (ii) clinical trials and (b) ensure that sex and gender dimensions are accounted for in the development of medical (A) treatments and (B) interventions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds health and care research primarily through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has made research inclusion a condition of its funding. Applicants to domestic research programmes are required to demonstrate how inclusion is being built into all stages of the research lifecycle, with significant emphasis on how participant selection is considered. Before the end of March 2026, this will also be required for global health research and infrastructure awards.
The NIHR is developing a sex and gender policy to be implemented subsequently in 2025, to ensure that NIHR research accounts for sex and gender across every stage of the research cycle, allowing for a greater understanding of how men and women might be impacted differently by the same health condition, treatment, or intervention.
The Department is also developing a new research and development innovation strategy to accelerate the development of equitable, transformational medical technology solutions. Part of the aims of this work are to eliminate sex bias in medical technology research and development, ensuring that innovations are effective and accessible for all.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of UK funding for UNITAID on the cost of HPV testing in (a) low and (b) middle-income countries.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds
Unitaid are a leading funder of innovative tools to find and treat cervical cancer in low- and middle-income countries, with HPV tests the most accurate way to identify if a woman is at higher risk of developing cervical cancer. Together with partners, Unitaid's interventions lowered the cost of HPV testing by nearly 40 per cent and reduced the price of portable thermal ablation devices for treating precancerous lesions by more than 45 per cent. Unitaid's work is laying the groundwork for national cervical cancer elimination programs worldwide. We highly value our Unitaid partnership and have contributed more than half a billion pounds in funding.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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 help raise awareness of cervical cancer; and whether he is taking steps with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs to help raise awareness of cervical cancer in other countries.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an early point.
Department of Health and Social Care officials work closely with colleagues in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to raise awareness of cervical cancer in lower and middle income countries. For example, the Government has committed £1.65 billion to Gavi from 2021 to 2025, which provides the human papillomavirus vaccine to help protect the most vulnerable girls from the leading cause of cervical cancer.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) protect natural habitats and (b) promote biodiversity net gain.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In England we are committed to nature protection and recovery. This includes delivering our legally binding biodiversity target to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat by 2042.
We will create, restore and connect wildlife-rich habitat, reduce pressures on species including from pollution and climate change, and take targeted action to recover specific species.
The Environmental Improvement Plan is being reviewed and we have confirmed the commitment to restoring 75% of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) to favourable condition by 2042. SSSIs continue to be one of the most effective tools for protecting and enhancing biodiversity and deliver a wide range of health and socio-economic benefits.
A priority for this Government is to support building the homes and infrastructure we desperately need while protecting the environment.
Mandatory biodiversity net gain, which became a requirement for most developments in February 2024, is an important means of enabling this.
Officials are working closely with the construction, environmental, and local authority sectors to monitor the delivery of biodiversity net gain to ensure its success.