Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of nurses and midwives accused of sexual misconduct were placed under interim suspension by the NMC between 2019 and 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information centrally. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the independent regulator of nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, and nursing associates in England. The NMC is independent of the Government, directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The UK's model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
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 whether the absence of mandatory strike‑off in the new MPTS guidance for proven sexual misconduct by doctors adequately protects patients.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new guidance for Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service tribunals includes more detail about assessing the seriousness of an allegation and the features that may increase the seriousness. The guidance now also includes sanction bandings. These indicate the range of outcomes that can be expected in different case types, once a tribunal has decided whether a doctor poses a low, medium, or high level of risk to the public.
In cases relating to sexual misconduct, because the level of current and ongoing risk to public protection will generally be considered medium or high, tribunals should consider suspension or erasure. The guidance sets out that in cases where misconduct is found to be sexually motivated, the inherent seriousness is likely to be high, and that makes any outcome short of erasure from the register inappropriate.
The Department monitors how regulators perform their duties and will continue to engage with the General Medical Council, including assessing how the new guidance impacts the outcomes of tribunal findings in cases of sexual misconduct.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
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 effectiveness of (a) (i) communications and (ii) public advertising on NHS dentistry and (b) oral health initiatives to improve patient access to NHS dental services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently no national communication campaigns on National Health Service dentistry and oral health initiatives to improve patient access and therefore no assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the communications and public advertising on NHS dentistry and oral health initiatives aimed at improving patient access to NHS dental services.
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local populations and to determine the priorities for investment. They are also responsible for deciding how best to communicate about their services for patients.
NHS England is responsible for maintaining and updating the NHS.uk website for England, which provides information and services to help patients manage their health including on dentistry.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England spent on (a) communications and (b) public advertising relating to NHS (i) dentistry and (ii) oral health initiatives in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has spent no money on communications or advertising relating to National Health Service dentistry or oral health initiatives in the last five years.
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local populations and to determine the priorities for investment. They are also responsible for deciding how best to communicate about their services for patients.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of doctors accused of sexual misconduct were placed under interim suspension by the GMC between 2018 and 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information centrally.
The General Medical Council (GMC) is the regulator of all medical doctors, physician assistants, and physician assistants in anaesthesia, still legally known as anaesthesia associates and physician associates, practising in the United Kingdom. The GMC is independent of the Government, being directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The United Kingdom’s model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any doctors were erased or struck off due to sexual misconduct between 2018 and 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information centrally.
The General Medical Council (GMC) is the regulator of all medical doctors, physician assistants, and physician assistants in anaesthesia, still legally known as anaesthesia associates and physician associates, practising in the United Kingdom. The GMC is independent of the Government, being directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties. The United Kingdom’s model of healthcare professional regulation is founded on the principle of regulators operating independently from the Government.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions his Department has had with the (a) General Medical Council and (b) Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service on the implementation of the new Guidance for MPTS Tribunals, published in October 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Discussions have taken place between the Department and both the General Medical Council and the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service to understand how the updated guidance will influence tribunal decision making and whether the new sanction bandings in the guidance, which set out recommended sanction levels based on the type and severity of the case, will lead to more consistent outcomes.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the average time between the (a) onset of symptoms and (b) formal diagnosis for patients with (i) lung, (ii) pancreatic, (iii) liver, (iv) brain, (v) oesophageal and (vi) stomach cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is supporting the National Health Service to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), for 75% of patients to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of being referred urgently by their general practitioner (GP) for suspected cancer. NHS England collects and publishes monthly FDS performance data nationally and for individual cancer groups. Data is not available from the time of the onset of symptoms, but from referral.
To achieve the FDS, NHS England rolled out public awareness campaigns of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlined referral routes for different cancer types, and is increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres.
NHS England has also achieved full roll out of non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms which do not clearly align to a tumour type.
The NHS is also taking crucial steps to improve lung cancer outcomes for patients across England, including the roll out of the Lung Cancer Screening Programme, designed to identify cancer at an earlier stage, and which is aimed at high-risk individuals or people with a history of smoking between the ages of 55 and 74 years old.
Additionally, we set out expectations for renewed focus on cancer targets in the Elective Reform plan, published on 6 January 2025. We asked systems and providers to identify local opportunities in both community diagnostic centres and hospital based diagnostic services to improve performance against the FDS, to reduce the number of patients waiting too long for a confirmed diagnosis of cancer.
As part of developing the forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England, the Department has been working with members of the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce to identify how to improve diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes for less survivable cancers, which includes lung, pancreatic, liver, brain, oesophageal, and stomach cancer.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
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 reduce the time taken to diagnose (a) lung, (b) pancreatic, (c) liver, (d) brain, (e) oesophageal and (f) stomach cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is supporting the National Health Service to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), for 75% of patients to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of being referred urgently by their general practitioner (GP) for suspected cancer. NHS England collects and publishes monthly FDS performance data nationally and for individual cancer groups. Data is not available from the time of the onset of symptoms, but from referral.
To achieve the FDS, NHS England rolled out public awareness campaigns of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlined referral routes for different cancer types, and is increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres.
NHS England has also achieved full roll out of non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms which do not clearly align to a tumour type.
The NHS is also taking crucial steps to improve lung cancer outcomes for patients across England, including the roll out of the Lung Cancer Screening Programme, designed to identify cancer at an earlier stage, and which is aimed at high-risk individuals or people with a history of smoking between the ages of 55 and 74 years old.
Additionally, we set out expectations for renewed focus on cancer targets in the Elective Reform plan, published on 6 January 2025. We asked systems and providers to identify local opportunities in both community diagnostic centres and hospital based diagnostic services to improve performance against the FDS, to reduce the number of patients waiting too long for a confirmed diagnosis of cancer.
As part of developing the forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England, the Department has been working with members of the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce to identify how to improve diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes for less survivable cancers, which includes lung, pancreatic, liver, brain, oesophageal, and stomach cancer.
Asked by: Josh Fenton-Glynn (Labour - Calder Valley)
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 the time taken to diagnose (a) cancers that present with (i) vague and (ii) non-specific symptoms and (b) pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is supporting the National Health Service to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), for 75% of patients to be diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of being referred urgently by their general practitioner (GP) for suspected cancer. NHS England collects and publishes monthly FDS performance data nationally and for individual cancer groups. Data is not available from the time of the onset of symptoms, but from referral.
To achieve the FDS, NHS England rolled out public awareness campaigns of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlined referral routes for different cancer types, and is increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres.
NHS England has also achieved full roll out of non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms which do not clearly align to a tumour type.
The NHS is also taking crucial steps to improve lung cancer outcomes for patients across England, including the roll out of the Lung Cancer Screening Programme, designed to identify cancer at an earlier stage, and which is aimed at high-risk individuals or people with a history of smoking between the ages of 55 and 74 years old.
Additionally, we set out expectations for renewed focus on cancer targets in the Elective Reform plan, published on 6 January 2025. We asked systems and providers to identify local opportunities in both community diagnostic centres and hospital based diagnostic services to improve performance against the FDS, to reduce the number of patients waiting too long for a confirmed diagnosis of cancer.
As part of developing the forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England, the Department has been working with members of the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce to identify how to improve diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes for less survivable cancers, which includes lung, pancreatic, liver, brain, oesophageal, and stomach cancer.