Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to help improve the global competitiveness of the City of London.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government’s Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy , co-designed with industry, sets out the government’s ten-year plan to make the UK the world’s centre of choice for financial services investment now and in 2035.
Since July, the Government has been squarely focused on delivery the Strategy, including launching the Office for Investment: Financial Services to attract and support global firms to establish and grow in the UK and UK listings relief – exempting shares from Stamp Duty Reserve Tax for the first three years that a company is listed.
The government will continue working at pace to deliver the reforms it has committed to.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
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 ensure that Cystic Fibrosis patients living in North London are not adversely impacted by the proposed removal of respiratory services from the Royal Brompton Hospital.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Any changes to services must follow established statutory processes, including full clinical engagement, consideration of patient impact, and public consultation where required. These processes are designed to ensure that any proposed reconfiguration maintains or improves the quality, safety, and accessibility of care for patients.
The Department expects NHS England and local commissioners to demonstrate that any changes will not adversely affect patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and that services continue to meet the national service specifications for specialised respiratory and CF care. This includes ensuring that specialist multidisciplinary CF teams remain accessible, that transition and continuity of care are safeguarded, and that travel times and capacity implications are assessed and mitigated.
Although the location of some services will change, there is no reduction in CF services capacity and no loss of specialist expertise as a result of this change. The full paediatric CF multidisciplinary team, including specialist clinicians, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists and dietitians, will continue to care for patients as a single specialist service.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to respond to emails sent by the Rt Hon. Member for Godalming and Ash dated 18 November 2025 and 20 January 2026 concerning a case relating to a Magistrate.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
A response was sent on 24 February and the Department apologises for the significant delay in replying. We recognise that, on this occasion, the delay falls short of expected standards.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the workforce required to provide specialist women’s health services through the NHS online hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Analysis shows that the anticipated workforce available to provide women’s health services through the NHS online hospital, provides enough capacity to meet the demand for the service in the first three years.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
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 ensure that women accessing care for (a) menopause and (b) menstrual disorders via the NHS online hospital can be referred efficiently to in-person specialist services when needed.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Online will be a new, optional online service allowing patients to digitally connect with clinicians across England. When a patient is referred to NHS Online, should a consultation be required, they will see the next available specialist, who may be anywhere in the country. For patients who are diagnosed with menopause or menstrual disorders conditions, where the NHS Online clinician determines that in-person specialist services are the appropriate treatment, they will be transferred to appropriate local services, including in-person specialist care.
Patients will always have the choice of face-to-face appointments, and those who need physical examinations or procedures will continue to receive them either at hospital or local hubs nearby. If a patient displays more complex symptoms after the original referral to NHS Online, then they can be referred back on to a more traditional pathway.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
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 NHS online hospital on levels of regional variation in gynaecology waiting times.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Women’s health issues, including severe menopause symptoms and menstrual problems that may be a sign of endometriosis, fibroids, polycystic ovary syndrome, adenomyosis, or pelvic infection, will be among the conditions available for referral to NHS Online from 2027.
NHS Online will be unconstrained by geographical boundaries, able to better align clinical capacity with patient demand, and will help tackle deep rooted inequalities in the healthcare system by ending the postcode lottery of care and waiting times, including for women’s health issues. Once referred by their general practitioner, patients can be seen quickly by National Health Service specialists online. Remote consultations, follow-ups, and condition management can be delivered digitally. Streamlined pathways will shorten delays between referral and treatment and help patients start their care sooner.
NHS Online will help to reduce patient waiting times, delivering the equivalent of up to 8.5 million appointments and assessments in its first three years, four times more than an average trust, while enhancing patient choice and control over their care.
NHS Online is undertaking a detailed equality health impact assessment to assess the impacts of the service, and is working with patients and carers to ensure that these are addressed. Patient choice remains central to care. NHS Online will enhance patient choice with in-person care always available for those who prefer and for those whose care needs require it.
Before NHS Online goes live, the NHS will learn from existing research on patient experience of online care over the last five years and build it into the programme as it develops. The programme is being developed with a commitment to patient partnership in design and delivery. We will be working with marginalised groups, including through the Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise sector, which represents communities who share protected characteristics or that experience health inequalities, with further information avaiable at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/hwalliance/
Inclusion will be a core priority as the organisation evolves.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the NHS online hospital on women’s health inequalities.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Women’s health issues, including severe menopause symptoms and menstrual problems that may be a sign of endometriosis, fibroids, polycystic ovary syndrome, adenomyosis, or pelvic infection, will be among the conditions available for referral to NHS Online from 2027.
NHS Online will be unconstrained by geographical boundaries, able to better align clinical capacity with patient demand, and will help tackle deep rooted inequalities in the healthcare system by ending the postcode lottery of care and waiting times, including for women’s health issues. Once referred by their general practitioner, patients can be seen quickly by National Health Service specialists online. Remote consultations, follow-ups, and condition management can be delivered digitally. Streamlined pathways will shorten delays between referral and treatment and help patients start their care sooner.
NHS Online will help to reduce patient waiting times, delivering the equivalent of up to 8.5 million appointments and assessments in its first three years, four times more than an average trust, while enhancing patient choice and control over their care.
NHS Online is undertaking a detailed equality health impact assessment to assess the impacts of the service, and is working with patients and carers to ensure that these are addressed. Patient choice remains central to care. NHS Online will enhance patient choice with in-person care always available for those who prefer and for those whose care needs require it.
Before NHS Online goes live, the NHS will learn from existing research on patient experience of online care over the last five years and build it into the programme as it develops. The programme is being developed with a commitment to patient partnership in design and delivery. We will be working with marginalised groups, including through the Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise sector, which represents communities who share protected characteristics or that experience health inequalities, with further information avaiable at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/hwalliance/
Inclusion will be a core priority as the organisation evolves.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
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 ensure that patients with suspected endometriosis can access clinicians with specialist expertise through the NHS online hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Online will be a new, optional online service allowing patients to digitally connect with clinicians across England. In January 2026, we announced the initial specialities and conditions that NHS Online will focus on. Menstrual problems that may be a sign of endometriosis will be one of the first conditions available for referral to NHS Online when it launches in 2027. This pathway being developed for NHS Online incorporates a process for investigation, management, and onward referral to specialist services within a timely manner if clinically indicated.
This means that when a patient goes to see their general practitioner, they will have the option of being referred, through their legal right to choice, to NHS Online for their care. Should a consultation be required, they will see the next available specialist, who may be anywhere in the country. Following an NHS Online assessment, if a patient requires or chooses a face-to-face consultation they will be referred to a local provider.
Patient safety will not be compromised. Clinical oversight will be robust, keeping patient safety at the heart of the process.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
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) prioritise research into pancreatic cancer and (b) encourage innovations in earlier diagnosis.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and in 2024/25, spent £141.6 million on cancer research, signalling its high priority. This includes studies that focus specifically on pancreatic cancer as well as studies that are relevant to or include pancreatic cancer. For example, between the 2020/21 to 2024/25 financial years, the NIHR committed £1.5 million to specific pancreatic cancer studies.
One instance of this is ongoing research funded by the NIHR which aims into improve the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer by utilising artificial intelligence as well as reducing instances of missed cancer.
The NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure, including facilities, services, and the research workforce, supported the delivery of 160 pancreatic cancer research studies and enabled over 8,200 people to participate in potentially life-changing research during this time period. This includes support for the PemOla trial, which is the first to explore using precision immunotherapies to treat pancreatic cancer.
The Office for Life Sciences’ Cancer Healthcare Goals programme aims to maximise and direct global industrial investment for the development and acceleration of new cancer diagnostic and therapeutic technologies and devices in the United Kingdom through: providing research investments to support the development of innovations in the early stages of the development pathway and; supporting industry to accelerate cancer diagnostic and therapeutic technologies and devices in the latter stages of development into the National Health Service.
The programme launched the £10.9 million NIHR i4i Cancer Healthcare Goals: Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation Call. This has funded six projects which are developing breakthrough technologies that can increase the proportion of cancers which are detected earlier in the disease course and/or target health inequalities in cancer diagnosis.
This includes the miONCO-Dx multi-cancer early detection test, developed by XGenera, which can identify 12 of the most lethal and common cancers, including pancreatic cancer, at even the earliest stages from just 100 microlitres of blood. This technology is currently testing the diagnostic test accuracy on over 20,000 patient samples with promising early results.
The NIHR continues to encourage and welcome high quality funding applications into pancreatic cancer.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
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 access to clinical trials for patients with pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with pancreatic cancer, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.
The Department funds research and research infrastructure through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which supports National Health Service patients, the public, and NHS organisations across England to participate in high-quality research, including clinical trials into cancers.
NIHR 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.
The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients across the country. It will ensure that more patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and to clinical trials.
The Government also supports the Rare Cancers Private Members Bill. The bill will make it easier for clinical trials, on for example pancreatic cancer, to take place in England, by ensuring the patient population can be more easily contacted by researchers.