Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of British citizens killed during the terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas on 7 October 2023.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office is aware of 15 British nationals who were killed on 7 October, during Hamas' attack on Israel. This is based on information provided to us by the Israeli authorities and affected bereaved families.

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 young people with cancer have equity of access to (a) age-appropriate and (b) specialist psychological support.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (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 includes children, teenagers and young adults (CTYA).

NHS England has published service specifications that set out the service standards required of all providers of CTYA cancer services. The requirements include ensuring that every patient has access to specialist care and reducing physical, emotional, and psychological morbidity arising from treatment for childhood cancer. The specifications are available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-b/b05/

Children’s cancer care is managed by principal treatment centres (PTCs) who ensure quality care. Each PTC has a multi-disciplinary team which meets at least weekly and includes a specific focus on the psychosocial needs of patient. The multi-disciplinary team ensures that each service user is assessed for psychological needs and can access any psychosocial support that is required.

The Department is also taking steps to improving waiting times for cancer diagnosis and treatment across all cancer patient groups in England. We will start by supporting the NHS to deliver an extra 40,000 scans, appointments and operations each week to ensure that patients are seen as quickly as possible.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has set out guidance for general practitioners on the symptoms of cancer in CTYA, recommending referral within 48 hours for those presenting with potential cancer symptoms. To support timely investigation after referral, we are working with the NHS to maximise the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, including via the roll out of community diagnostic centres.

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 reduce waiting times for the (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment of cancer in teenagers and young adults.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (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 includes children, teenagers and young adults (CTYA).

NHS England has published service specifications that set out the service standards required of all providers of CTYA cancer services. The requirements include ensuring that every patient has access to specialist care and reducing physical, emotional, and psychological morbidity arising from treatment for childhood cancer. The specifications are available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-b/b05/

Children’s cancer care is managed by principal treatment centres (PTCs) who ensure quality care. Each PTC has a multi-disciplinary team which meets at least weekly and includes a specific focus on the psychosocial needs of patient. The multi-disciplinary team ensures that each service user is assessed for psychological needs and can access any psychosocial support that is required.

The Department is also taking steps to improving waiting times for cancer diagnosis and treatment across all cancer patient groups in England. We will start by supporting the NHS to deliver an extra 40,000 scans, appointments and operations each week to ensure that patients are seen as quickly as possible.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has set out guidance for general practitioners on the symptoms of cancer in CTYA, recommending referral within 48 hours for those presenting with potential cancer symptoms. To support timely investigation after referral, we are working with the NHS to maximise the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, including via the roll out of community diagnostic centres.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the (a) effectiveness of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and (b) potential merits of adopting that legislation nationwide.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The UK Government works closely and discusses a range of matters with colleagues in the Welsh Government. Consideration of the effectiveness of devolved legislation is a matter for the relevant devolved legislature and government. The Cabinet Office therefore has not carried out a specific assessment of the effectiveness of the Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015.

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 that parents do not have to wait six months or more for post-mortem results following the death of a baby.

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

The Government recognises the significant impact of delays in post-mortems on bereaved families. Specialised perinatal pathology services provide medical investigations, including post-mortem examinations following the death of a foetus or baby. These services are delivered by 18 National Health Service hospital trusts in England.

Perinatal pathology services are currently experiencing significant staff shortages. There are 26.15 whole time equivalent consultant vacancies, which is a 46% vacancy rate across the service. The lack of consultant staff is impacting the service’s ability to produce post-mortem reports in line with national standards, as set out in NHS England’s service specification B, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/e12-perinatal-path.pdf

In response to the impact that the staffing challenges are having have on the service, NHS England has established a Perinatal Pathology Transformation Programme which is implementing interventions to increase perinatal pathology service capacity over time and improve the post-mortem reporting time. The programme reports to a national Steering Group which has clinical, commissioning, and key stakeholder representation, including service users and patient and public voice representation, through the baby loss charity Sands. The Royal College of Pathologists is also included in the membership of the Steering Group.

Additionally, we welcome and are carefully considering the findings of the Justice Committee’s recent follow-up Inquiry into the Coroner Service, including on coronial pathology provision.

UK support for the global effort to feed children at school

Work of St John Ambulance

Found: Questions 1-15 Representations made I: Jayne Kirkham; Perran Moon II: Max Wilkinson III: Mrs Sharon Hodgson

Found: Cwynarski (Director General (Operations)) Tom Goldsmith (Clerk of the House) Apologies: Sharon Hodgson

Found: ) (Chair) , The Leader of the House of Commons ( Lucy Powell) , Rachel Blake, Marie Goldman, Sharon Hodgson