Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department made of the number of cases of avian influenza within the game bird population.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) assesses the impact gamebird releases have on the likelihood of transmission of avian influenza to wild birds, and between wild birds and kept birds. These risk assessments are available as part of the APHA’s ‘Animal diseases: international and UK monitoring’ collection on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 breakdown of the cost to the public purse of NHS spend on (a) branded pharmaceuticals, (b) generic pharmaceuticals and (c) companion diagnostics in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 7 November 2024, the NHS Business Service Authority published data on the costs of medicines, appliances, dressings, and medical devices prescribed within primary and secondary care in England. This report is available at the following link:
A breakdown of the prescribing costs in England between branded and generic medicines is available for primary care only, and can be found at the following link:
Such publications do not account for income received under the 2024 voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access, and growth (VPAG) or the statutory scheme. Information on how the VPAG and the statutory scheme, which operate United Kingdom-wide, control the cost of sales of branded medicines to the National Health Service is available at the following link:
VPAG and statutory scheme sales data does not reflect the total cost to the NHS. The publication reports net sales of non-exempt products and non-exempt companies only, and is exclusive of additional costs such as pharmacy and wholesaler margins.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne 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 projected net NHS spend on medicines (a) before and (b) after accounting for forecast rebates due via the (i) Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth and (ii) Branded Health Service Medicines (costs) Regulations 2018 for the next five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Annex 3 of the document titled Annexes to the 2024 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth outlines the forecasts of measured sales and payments from branded medicines. This document is available at the following link:
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on the NHS Long Term plan target of increasing clinical trial participation for children and young people with cancer to 50% by 2025.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to maximising our potential to lead the world in clinical trials and ensuring clinical trials are more accessible, including for children and young people. The Department does not hold data on the overall percentage of children and young people with cancer that are enrolled in clinical trials nationwide, but does collect data on participation through National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded infrastructure.
The Department funds research and research infrastructure through the NIHR. NIHR-funded infrastructure is enabling clinical trial participation for children and young people with cancer. In particular, the NIHR Clinical Research Network, now the NIHR Research Delivery Network, supported 15 cancer studies which children and young people were eligible for between 2021/22 and 2023/24, and across all these studies, 715 total participants were recruited during this timeframe.
Through the NIHR, the Department also jointly funds the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre Paediatric Cancer Network with Cancer Research UK and the Little Princess Trust, which brings together clinicians and translational scientists to run early phase clinical trials for children and young people with cancer.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
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 (a) diagnosis and (b) referral rates for 13–24-year-olds with cancer.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, so that more patients survive this horrible set of diseases. This includes children, teenagers, and young adults.
The Department is taking steps to improving waiting times for cancer diagnosis across all cancer patient groups in England. We will start by delivering an extra 40,000 scans, appointments, and operations each week to ensure that patients are seen as quickly as possible.
We are also working with the NHS to maximise the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing Community Diagnostic Centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer. This will help us continue to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard, which aims to ensure that over 75% patients have cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days of referral from a general practice (GP) or screening service.
To support timely and effective referrals, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has set out detailed guidance for GPs on the symptoms of cancer in children and young people, recommending referral within 48 hours for those presenting with a range of potential cancer symptoms.
Lord Darzi’s independent investigation into the NHS highlighted that there is more to be done to increase the speed at which patients are diagnosed with and treated for cancer. His report will inform our 10-year plan to reform the NHS, which will include further details on how we will improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes. This includes children and young people.
On 21 October 2024, the Department launched a national engagement exercise to inform the plan. We encourage people and organisations who would like to share their views on the priorities of children and young people with cancer to do so via the online platform, change.NHS.UK. Following the engagement exercise, the Department will carefully consider how the priorities of this group should be reflected in the plan and any subsequent work.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to ensure that the priorities of (a) children and (b) young people with cancer are included within the ten-year plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, so that more patients survive this horrible set of diseases. This includes children, teenagers, and young adults.
The Department is taking steps to improving waiting times for cancer diagnosis across all cancer patient groups in England. We will start by delivering an extra 40,000 scans, appointments, and operations each week to ensure that patients are seen as quickly as possible.
We are also working with the NHS to maximise the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing Community Diagnostic Centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer. This will help us continue to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard, which aims to ensure that over 75% patients have cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days of referral from a general practice (GP) or screening service.
To support timely and effective referrals, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has set out detailed guidance for GPs on the symptoms of cancer in children and young people, recommending referral within 48 hours for those presenting with a range of potential cancer symptoms.
Lord Darzi’s independent investigation into the NHS highlighted that there is more to be done to increase the speed at which patients are diagnosed with and treated for cancer. His report will inform our 10-year plan to reform the NHS, which will include further details on how we will improve cancer diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes. This includes children and young people.
On 21 October 2024, the Department launched a national engagement exercise to inform the plan. We encourage people and organisations who would like to share their views on the priorities of children and young people with cancer to do so via the online platform, change.NHS.UK. Following the engagement exercise, the Department will carefully consider how the priorities of this group should be reflected in the plan and any subsequent work.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what further steps he plans to take to support the hospitality sector in the Colne Valley constituency.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Hospitality businesses, including those in Colne Valley, are at the heart of our communities and vital for economic growth. That is why the Government is creating a fairer business rate system by introducing permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses from 2026-27 and extending the current relief for 1 year at 40%.
The government is also reducing alcohol duty on qualifying draught products, representing an overall reduction in duty bills of over £85m a year.
We will transform the apprenticeship levy into a more flexible growth and skills levy to better support business and boost opportunity.
Through the Hospitality Sector Council, we are addressing strategic issues for the sector related to high street regeneration, skills, sustainability, and productivity.
The department also provides support through the Business Support Service and network of Growth Hubs – including the West Yorkshire Business Support Service.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne 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 improve maternity services in the West Yorkshire region.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to improving maternity and neonatal services across the country, to ensure that all women and babies receive the care they deserve. The West Yorkshire and Harrogate Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS), as part of the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, focuses on transforming maternity services through NHS England’s three-year delivery plan, ensuring that care is personalised, and women are listened to. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.wypartnership.co.uk/our-priorities/maternity
The West Yorkshire and Harrogate LMNS has multiple working groups, which focus on the four key themes of the three-year delivery plan. This work includes implementing the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle version 3, which is a package of initiatives designed to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal death, and preterm birth, and meeting the requirements of the Maternity Incentive Scheme which provides financial incentives for trusts to meet certain safety requirements.
The LMNS has oversight and assurance through various metrics including clinical outcome data, workforce data, patient and staff surveys, a health inequalities dashboard, and a perinatal quality surveillance model.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that people in Colne Valley constituency can access a 5G signal by 2030.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Ofcom reports that basic (non-standalone) 5G is already available outside 83% of premises across the Colne Valley constituency from at least one mobile operator.
But in order to realise the full economic and social benefits of 5G, our ambition is for all populated areas, including those in the Colne Valley, to have higher-quality standalone 5G by 2030.
We work closely with the mobile industry and are committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework to support investment and competition in the market. As part of this work, the Government intends to reform the planning system to make it easier to build digital infrastructure.
Asked by: Paul Davies (Labour - Colne Valley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help improve broadband connections in Colne Valley constituency.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
According to the independent website ThinkBroadband.com, almost 98% of premises in the Colne Valley constituency have access to superfast broadband speeds (>=30 Mbps) and over 85% can access a gigabit-capable (>1000 Mbps) connection.
To extend gigabit-capable coverage further, Quickline is delivering a £60 million contract under Project Gigabit, to bring gigabit-capable broadband to around 28,000 premises across West Yorkshire and parts of North Yorkshire that would otherwise miss out, including in Colne Valley.