Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, what discussions he has had with his Chinese counterparts on ensuring authorisation for UK contractors to access the British Embassy in Beijing to undertake repair and maintenance work.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
UK contractors routinely visit our overseas missions around the world, including in China, to carry out maintenance and repairs. We have not had cause to raise this with the Chinese authorities.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to close the Asylum Reception Centre at the former RAF Wethersfield site; and what steps she is taking to ensure that the decommissioning is within the timescale outlined in the Special Development Order.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Any updates on the future use of the site will be announced in the normal way.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 help mitigate the loss of the AI auto-contouring technology tool for cancer treatment planning.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including artificial intelligence where it is beneficial to do so.
As the Department focuses on shifting from analogue to digital, we will continue to review opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to speed up diagnostic performance, bring down waiting times, and ultimately improve patient care and outcomes.
Furthermore, any future spending commitments beyond 2025/26 will be determined through the next phase of the Spending Review process, which will conclude in June.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 potential impact of the withdrawal of funding for AI auto-contouring technology on patient care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including artificial intelligence where it is beneficial to do so.
As the Department focuses on shifting from analogue to digital, we will continue to review opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to speed up diagnostic performance, bring down waiting times, and ultimately improve patient care and outcomes.
Furthermore, any future spending commitments beyond 2025/26 will be determined through the next phase of the Spending Review process, which will conclude in June.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS cancer trusts are (a) delivering radiotherapy contouring planning manually and (b) using AI auto contouring for radiotherapy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England undertook a baseline assessment of artificially intelligent (AI) auto-contouring systems in summer 2024 which indicated that, at that time, 39 trusts had some AI arrangements in place.
The use of AI auto contouring technology to plan for treatments is not always suitable, useful, or available for all areas of the body, therefore, the actual percentage of cases where AI technology was used is not known.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 for future funding of AI auto-contouring technology.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Any future spending commitments beyond 2025/26 will be determined through the next phase of the Spending Review process, which will conclude in June.
The Department continuously supports the National Health Service in reviewing opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence (AI) to transform diagnostic performance, bring down waiting times, and supporting staff with their workload.
Furthermore, the Department is carrying out work to assess the barriers of effective adoption and improve the way AI tools are deployed across the NHS through a number of initiatives, including the NHS AI Lab’s Ethics Initiative, which invests in research and practical interventions that could strengthen the ethical adoption of AI within health and care and addresses risks and concerns over their use.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 reduce waiting times for cancer treatment, in the context of the withdrawal of funding for AI auto-contouring technology.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will improve National Health Service cancer waiting time performance, so patients are diagnosed and treated faster. We will also improve cancer survival rates by diagnosing cancers at an earlier stage.
We will build on recent successes, including the roll out of the Lung Screening programme, to diagnose cancer earlier and boost survival rates.
Furthermore, the recently announced National Cancer Plan will set out key goals and actions to improve on cancer waiting time performance and survival rates.
The Department supports the NHS in reviewing opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to transform performance, bring down waiting times, and improve survival rates.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to improve cancer survival rates, in the context of the withdrawal of funding for AI auto-contouring.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will improve National Health Service cancer waiting time performance, so patients are diagnosed and treated faster. We will also improve cancer survival rates by diagnosing cancers at an earlier stage.
We will build on recent successes, including the roll out of the Lung Screening programme, to diagnose cancer earlier and boost survival rates.
Furthermore, the recently announced National Cancer Plan will set out key goals and actions to improve on cancer waiting time performance and survival rates.
The Department supports the NHS in reviewing opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to transform performance, bring down waiting times, and improve survival rates.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Oral Statement of 22 July 2024 on Border Security and Asylum, Official Report, columns 384-387, how many people who would have been eligible for (a) processing and (b) relocation to Rwanda have remained in the UK.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Rt Hon Gentleman to the Statement form the Home Secretary on 22 July 2024, to which this question refers, and which explains the fundamental flaw in the premise of his question, namely that – during his own time as Home Secretary, he was unable to establish a way to make the Rwanda scheme operational, and as such, the categories referred to in this question do not exist.
Nevertheless, the Rt Hon Gentleman will be pleased to note that – since coming to office – this Government has ensured the removal of more than 24,000 people with no right to be in the UK, the highest nine-month total for returns since January to September in 2017.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce small boat crossings.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Rt Hon Gentleman to the Statements made by the Home Secretary when moving the Border Security Asylum and Immigration Bill for its second reading on 10 February 2025, and when reporting on the UK’s hosting of the Organised Immigration Crime summit on 31 March 2025.