Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a yearly evaluation of the suicide prevention training programme; and what steps he is taking to ensure (a) transparency and (b) accountability in the programme.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

As part of the Government’s mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we have set out our commitment to deliver a renewed drive to tackle the biggest killers, including suicide, while ensuring people live well for longer. As part of this, an additional 8,500 mental health workers will be recruited across children and adult mental health services, and those new workers will be specially trained to support people at risk.

We recognise that bringing in the staff needed will take time, as will ensuring they have the necessary training. We are working to develop a plan to deliver this expansion of the mental health workforce, including where they should be deployed to achieve maximum effect.

The NHS is committed to ensuring that all healthcare professionals receive the necessary mental health training to meet the current and future needs of patients. In September 2023, NHS England published its suicide prevention toolkit for NHS staff to use.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what plans he has to tackle barriers to implementing suicide prevention training in the workplace.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

I refer the Hon Members to the answer given by the Department of Health and Social Care on 16 January 2025, Official Report, PQ 24604.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions he is having with employers on ensuring that frontline workers receive adequate (a) debriefing, (b) peer support spaces, (c) training for team leaders and (d) other appropriate workplace emotional support.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

Despite the challenging fiscal environment, the government has committed to the importance of protecting funding on mental health. The Department of Health and Social Care have chosen to prioritise funding to deliver expansions of NHS Talking Therapies and Individual Placement & Support, demonstrating our commitment to addressing the root cause of mental health issues and providing support for people to contribute to the economy by remaining in or returning to work.

Furthermore, the digital service for Employers, Support with employee health and disability – GOV.UK, offers advice on managing health and disability-related needs at work. There is also the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) offers practical, independent, and impartial help to employers, employees and their representatives about a wide range of employment relations matters (www.acas.org.uk).

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 mandatory suicide prevention training for all frontline workers is (a) fully funded and (b) effectively implemented in (i) healthcare, (ii) education, (iii) prisons and probation, (v) emergency services, and (v) money, housing, and employment services.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

As part of the Government’s mission to build a National Health Service fit for the future, we have set out our commitment to deliver a renewed drive to tackle the biggest killers, including suicide, while ensuring people live well for longer. As part of this, an additional 8,500 mental health workers will be recruited across child and adult mental health services, and those new workers will be specially trained to support people at risk.

The NHS is committed to ensuring that all healthcare professionals receive the necessary mental health training to meet the current and future needs of patients. NHS England has responsibility for working with partners to plan, recruit, educate, and train the health workforce. In September 2023, NHS England published its suicide prevention toolkit for NHS staff to use.

It is for employers in the other emergency services, education, prisons and probation, money, housing, and employment services to ensure that their staff receive the appropriate training needed in order to carry out their duties effectively.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) introducing a proxy staging measure for non-stageable blood cancers and (b) applying a national target to (i) measure and (ii) support a reduction in levels of late diagnosis.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne

There are no current plans to introduce a specific proxy staging measure or a corresponding national target to support the earlier diagnosis of blood cancers.

It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancer, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes. We will get the NHS diagnosing blood cancer earlier and treating it faster. We will start by delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, as the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and faster treatment.

In addition to improving cancer waiting time performance, the NHS has implemented non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. This includes blood cancer, which the national evaluation found was one of the most common cancers diagnosed via these pathways.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with blood cancer and other cancers with lower survival rates. We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be and will provide updates in due course.

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 mitigate the impact of (a) delayed diagnosis and (b) emergency presentation rates on people with blood cancer.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne

The Government has not taken a specific assessment on the potential impact of late diagnosis on outcomes for people with blood cancer. It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancer, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes. We will start by delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, as the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and faster treatment.

In addition to improving cancer waiting time performance, the NHS has implemented non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. This includes blood cancer, which the national evaluation found was one of the most common cancers diagnosed via these pathways, therefore mitigating the impact of late diagnosis, and reducing emergency presentation.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with blood cancer and other cancers with lower survival rates. We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be, and we will provide updates in due course.

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 on the potential impact of late diagnosis on outcomes for people with blood cancer.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne

The Government has not taken a specific assessment on the potential impact of late diagnosis on outcomes for people with blood cancer. It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including blood cancer, as early and quickly as possible, and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes. We will start by delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, as the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and faster treatment.

In addition to improving cancer waiting time performance, the NHS has implemented non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. This includes blood cancer, which the national evaluation found was one of the most common cancers diagnosed via these pathways, therefore mitigating the impact of late diagnosis, and reducing emergency presentation.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with blood cancer and other cancers with lower survival rates. We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be, and we will provide updates in due course.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with the BBC on the financial pressures it faces.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The Secretary of State is a strong supporter of the BBC and, with Charter Review approaching, wants to ensure the long term financial sustainability of the corporation.

Ministers and officials in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have regular discussions with the BBC, and the Secretary of State had her first formal meeting on the Charter Review process with the Director General in November 2024.

As part of the next Charter Review, discussions with the BBC will continue to focus on how to ensure the BBC thrives well into the next decade and beyond. This will include ongoing discussions on a range of important issues, including future funding models. Funding the BBC through general taxation is not being considered.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to help ensure that frontline public sector workers are sufficiently resourced to support the (a) implementation of suicide prevention training and (b) effective provision of support to people at risk of suicide.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

I refer the Hon Member to the answer given by the Department of Health and Social Care on 16 January 2025, Official Report, PQ 24604

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 4.5 of the Autumn Budget 2024, how many new (a) surgical hubs and (b) diagnostic scanners will be located in Yorkshire.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the 18-week Referral to Treatment constitutional standard by March 2029. The standard has not been met consistently since September 2015.

Surgical hubs offer productive solutions by focusing on providing high volume low complexity surgery, and will contribute to providing the surgical capacity needed to return to the constitutional standard. There are 112 elective surgical hubs operational across England as of December 2024. There are 14 surgical hubs already operational in the North East and Yorkshire region, and three more are planned to open. These three are:

- the Dewsbury and District Hospital Combined Elective Centre in Dewsbury;

- the St Luke's Hospital Day Case Unit in Bradford; and

- the Castle Hill Hospital Elective Hub in Cottingham.

The Department cannot yet confirm the location of all the new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners from the capital investment announced in the Autumn Statement. NHS England is working with local National Health Service systems to identify the most appropriate locations for investments, including new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners. Details will be set out at the earliest opportunity.

As detailed in the 2025/26 capital guidance, NHS England has provided systems with indicative allocations based on a combination of population-weighted shares and national and regional intelligence on where investment is needed and if it can be delivered within 2025/26. These allocations include funding for additional surgical hubs, diagnostic scanning capacity, urgent treatment centres co-located with emergency departments, and same day emergency care provision in those systems prioritised for these investments by national teams.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress his Department has made on developing a food strategy.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

On December 10, the Secretary of State spoke to businesses and industry groups from across the food sector and confirmed that work is underway to develop an ambitious food strategy. In developing the strategy, we are establishing a new way of working with the sector, building on strong partnerships to create a strategy drawing on shared expertise and collective commitments, backed by a clear vision and framework for change from government. Work to develop this is ongoing.

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: Taylor Rosie Duffield Carla Denyer Liz Saville Roberts Rachael Maskell Mrs Elsie Blundell Paul Davies

Found: on the Thorpe album and two volumes of Indian and Persian miniatures, as did David Hemsoll and Paul Davies