Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 equal access to healthcare treatments in each English region.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department sets national priorities for the National Health Service in England through the 2025 mandate to NHS England, reflecting patients’ priorities to be met across all 42 integrated care boards (ICBs).
ICBs are responsible for commissioning most health and care services in England and the National Health Service Act 2006, as amended by the Health Care Act 2022, places duties on ICBs to arrange healthcare services to meet the needs of their local population within available resources and reduce inequalities in access to, and outcomes from, healthcare services.
ICBs and NHS providers are accountable to NHS England on the delivery of the mandate and provision healthcare treatments across their populations, with the Department holding NHS England to account on this.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to increase funding for the research and development of diagnostic (a) tests and (b) tools to help support GPs to (i) diagnose and (ii) detect less survivable cancers (A) earlier and (B) faster.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests over £1.6 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24, reflecting its high priority.
The level of funding for research and development generally depends on funding applications received. The NIHR continues to welcome high quality, high impact funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including less survivable cancers.
In September 2024, the NIHR awarded £2.4 million to develop an artificial intelligence tool to support general practitioners (GPs) to identify suspected cancer faster and more effectively. It will use lung and pancreatic cancers as the first test cases. The NIHR also funded recently completed, January 2025, research into understanding how GPs use existing national guidance for urgent suspected cancer referral in primary care, with the findings expected to be published later this year.
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer earlier and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes for all patients across England. We are improving public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlining referral routes, and increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres.
We are also investing an additional £889 million in GPs to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade. We are committed to ensuring that GPs have the right training and systems to identify cancer. The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients. It will aim to speed up diagnosis and treatment and ensure all patients have access to the latest treatments and technology.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 adequacy of the supply for blood donation.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood services in England. Blood donation in the devolved nations is run by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service, and the Welsh Blood Service
The National Blood Transfusion Committee's shortage plans for red cells and platelets outlines four phases for the supply of blood to hospitals, supported by a framework of actions for NHSBT and hospitals at each phase. Further information on the shortage plans for red cells and platelets is available at the following link:
https://nationalbloodtransfusion.co.uk/recommendations
There has been an Amber Alert, when there is reduced availability of blood for a short or a prolonged period which impacts on clinical activity, in place in England for O group blood since July 2024, due to high hospital demand following a cyber-attack on pathology services in South-East London.
NHSBT has been using a number of initiatives to increase blood donations and in turn improve blood stocks, particularly to increase the diversity of the donor base to meet demand for Ro blood needed by sickle cell patients. The opening and reopening of the Brixton and Southampton donor centres respectively have increased NHSBT’s capacity to collect blood, and communications during National Blood Week have pushed for a million people to become regular donors via local, national, and online channels. The Department continues to work closely with NHSBT to ensure there is the right mix of donors across blood groups to meet hospital demand.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 improve uptake for jobs in the ambulance service.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of March 2025, there were over 21,900 full time equivalent ambulance staff in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England, representing an increase of over 1,900, or 9.6%, compared to the previous year.
We will publish a refreshed workforce plan for staff across the NHS, including ambulance services, to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, to ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department has undertaken on potential links between dementia and depression.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department delivers dementia research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Recently completed NIHR-funded research has found that depression across the life course is associated with an increased risk of dementia, but that this is strongest in mid to late life. Further research is needed to determine whether the strength of this association is due to depression as a risk factor for dementia or the early presentation of neurodegenerative processes.
The NIHR is funding the £2.9 million ENHANCE programme, which will develop an app intervention to address risk factors for dementia, including depression, and will test it to see the effects on cognition, risk, quality of life, and affordability. In the long-term, the research will examine health records to see if the app intervention has reduced rates of dementia. NIHR-funded research is also seeking to understand whether compassion focused therapy is an acceptable intervention for people with dementia and depression or anxiety.
The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including dementia. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. Welcoming applications on dementia to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of the amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research that can be funded.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 improve diagnosis of ADHD.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As health is a devolved matter, each administration of the United Kingdom takes its own decisions on the provision of assessments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
It is the responsibility of the integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including providing access to ADHD assessment and treatment, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
NHS England has established an ADHD taskforce which is bringing together those with lived experience with experts from the National Health Service, education, charity, and justice sectors to get a better understanding of the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing services and support, with the report expected in the summer.
For the first time, NHS England published management information on ADHD waits at a national level on 29 May 2025 as part of its ADHD data improvement plan, and has released technical guidance for ICBs to improve the recording of ADHD data, with a view to improving the quality of ADHD wait time data. NHS England has also captured examples from ICBs in England who are trialling innovative ways of delivering ADHD services, and is using this information to support systems in tackling ADHD waiting lists and providing support to address people’s needs.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 merits of increasing the (a) national minimum wage and (b) national living wage for care workers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Adult social care is a historically low paid sector, and most care workers are paid at or just above the National Living Wage. In 2023/24, approximately 70% of care workers in the independent sector earned within £1 of the National Living Wage.
The Government is introducing the first ever Fair Pay Agreement to the adult social care sector so that care professionals are recognised and rewarded for the important work that they do. Fair Pay Agreements will empower worker representatives, employers, and others to negotiate pay, and terms and conditions in a responsible manner. This will help to address the recruitment and retention crisis in the sector, in turn supporting the delivery of high-quality care.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
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 recent progress on making one-off payments to healthcare staff.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The most recent one-off payments for National Health Service staff in England were agreed as part of the 2023 Agenda for Change pay deal. No future one-off payments are actively being considered.
The Department provided funding to cover the cost of these payments to eligible staff. It is the responsibility of local employing organisations to ensure correct payments are made to eligible staff.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) publish a strategy to help improve the (i) diagnosis and (ii) detection of less survivable cancers and (b) ensure comprehensive (A) commissioning and (B) diagnostic capacity in (1) non-specific symptoms pathways, (2) urgent suspected cancer pathways and (3) GP direct access.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working to develop a new National Cancer Plan, which will include further details on how we will improve the diagnosis and detection of less survivable cancers.
As set out in the new plan for reforming elective care, the Government is committed to improving diagnostic capacity for cancer patients. Providers have been asked to identify local opportunities in both community diagnostic centres (CDCs) and hospital based diagnostic services to improve performance against the NHS Constitution standard for diagnostics and the cancer faster diagnosis standard, to reduce the number of patients waiting too long for a confirmed diagnosis of cancer and to start treatment.
The 2025/26 capital guidance confirmed that £1.65 billion of capital funding will be allocated to support National Health Service performance across secondary and emergency care across 2025/26 more broadly. This includes £0.6 billion which has been provisionally allocated for interventions to increase diagnostic capacity, including expanding existing CDCs, as well as building up to five new CDCs in 2025/26.
To expand diagnostic capacity in the non-specific symptom pathway (NSS), the NHS is rolling out rapid diagnostic centres (RDC) as part of the NSS pathway, where patients suspected of having cancer can get the right tests at the right time in as few visits as possible. RDC pathways promote the continuous improvement of cancer diagnostics.
The NHS is also expanding direct access to diagnostic scans across all general practices through the national roll out of fast track testing, helping to cut waiting times and speed up cancer diagnosis or cancer all-clear for patients, including developing and delivering at least 10 straight-to-test pathways by March 2026.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people passed away with sepsis in (a) the last 12 months and (b) the previous 12 month period.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes annual data on the number of death registrations where sepsis was the underlying cause of death, and where sepsis was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, in England and Wales between 2001 and 2023. The ONS has not yet published the number of death registrations for sepsis for 2024.
According to the ONS, the number of deaths registered where sepsis was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate in England and Wales was 26,203 in 2023. Published ONS data for deaths involving sepsis is available at the following link: