Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Darling Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

Let me be really clear in my advice to any man who is worried about prostate cancer, whether he has symptoms or not: go and discuss it with your GP. Testing is available when GPs recommend it, and I would recommend to no man that he should worry about it in silence, sit at home and fret about what might be going on.

The wider, targeted screening programme to which the Government have agreed is based on the evidence from weighing up the benefits of screening versus the harm that it can cause. We know that, at present, if cancerous cells are identified and treatment follows—for example, removal of the prostate—it leads to permanent urinary incontinence in 20% of cases and in two thirds of cases to permanent erectile dysfunction.

[Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)]

8. If he will make it his policy to retain Healthwatch.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

20. If he will make it his policy to retain Healthwatch.

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

We inherited a decades-old system whereby patient voice was divorced from decision makers, with more than 20 organisations offering a place for patients and users to share feedback. The Health Bill will put the views of patients and users at the heart of decision making, ensuring that that directly informs those responsible for commissioning locally, and we will create a new patient experience directorate in the Department to ensure that patient and user insight directly shapes national policymaking.

[Steve Darling]

The abolition of Healthwatch will see the NHS and the Government effectively marking their own homework. Can the Minister please give some assurances about how the Government will ensure that the voice of those with learning disabilities, complex needs and dementia is heard?

[Karin Smyth]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about the variety of needs that local commissioners need to take account of. That is exactly what the Health Bill will try to do, not by outsourcing that role to an outside body but by putting those views at the heart of what all commissioners do, which includes making sure that under-represented or often unheard voices do have a voice.