Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2025 to Question 63305 on Sodium Valproate and Surgical Mesh Implants, on what dates they held the meetings with the Patient Safety Commissioner to discuss the recommendations of the Hughes report.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since the publication of the Hughes Report on 7 February 2024, ministers and Departmental officials have met with the Patient Safety Commissioner on several occasions to discuss the recommendations of the Hughes report.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism for work capability assessors.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since 09 September 2024, the educational material for all Health Assessment Advisory Service (HAAS) Health Professionals (HPs) has been provided by DWP. In reviewing the material ahead of that date, we considered practice in the NHS, and have now implemented the Oliver McGowan training as part of the mandatory training requirements for every HP.
Following the completion of core training to undertake the role, HPs will engage in an annual training programme, and HAAS has been provided with materials (such as Continual Professional Development modules) to support the development of HPs where learning needs are identified. This approach ensures that both service wide and individual training needs are met and will be of benefit to those with neurodiversity.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2024 to Question 327 on Sodium Valproate and Surgical Mesh Implants, how many meetings have been held with the Patient Safety Commissioner on the recommendations of the Hughes report.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Departmental officials and ministers have met with the Patient Safety Commissioner on several occasions, and we are happy to continue to engage with the Patient Safety Commissioner on this matter.
The Government is carefully considering the work by the Patient Safety Commissioner and her report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex issue involving input from different Government departments. The Government will provide a further update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report in due course.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which hospitals received funding for machines capable of increasing treatment with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this information. However, a proportion of the machines will be capable of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the £70 million funding for new radiotherapy machines is in addition to the prevailing budgets for radiotherapy machines.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The £70 million investment into 28 radiotherapy machines that was announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget is part of the overall financial settlement for the 2025/26 financial year.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, which chemicals will be used in the Advanced Research and Invention Agency's geoengineering program.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
ARIA is an independent research body and they are conducting cautious, controlled research aimed at improving understanding of its Climate Cooling Programme’s risks and impacts. This will produce important information for decisions on climate cooling approaches around the world.
The government supports ARIA’s mission to fund transformational research programmes with long-term benefits. A select number of controlled, small-scale projects will explore spraying seawater as a potential way to enhance cloud reflectivity. Another project involves a study on how milligram quantities of mineral dusts age in the stratosphere. The project has specified that none of these materials will be released into the atmosphere in this experiment, and all the materials will be returned to the ground for recovery and analysis by scientists.
Details of all of ARIA’s funded projects within its ‘Climate Cooling Programme’ can be found on their website
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether an application for authorisation of Sipavibart has been submitted to the the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is actively engaging with Astra Zeneca for any applications in flight. We recognise the importance of the rapid assessment of the medicines mentioned and we are ensuring the decisions made appropriately assess quality, safety, and efficacy.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
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 the potential impact of restricting the radiotherapy machine fund to replacing only end of life machines on his Department's ability to make new radiotherapy capacity available in 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The £70 million fund will replace older radiotherapy machines with new, more efficient radiotherapy machines, which will in turn increase treatment capacity and allow more patients to be treated.
All future spending commitments beyond 2025/26, including the replacement of radiotherapy equipment, will be determined through the next phase of the Spending Review process, which will conclude in June.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the £70 million funding for radiotherapy machines announced in October 2024 is an additional budgetary amount for radiotherapy in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The £70 million investment into 28 radiotherapy machines, which was announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget, is part of the overall financial settlement for the 2025/26 financial year.
Asked by: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat - Wells and Mendip Hills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) online and (b) in person meetings NHS England had with (i) Varian, (ii) Elekta and (iii) Accuray before setting the criteria for the allocation of funding for new radiotherapy machines.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not currently hold this information, but we are seeking advice from NHS England on whether any engagement took place between NHS England and the medical companies listed.
The Government does not routinely publish correspondence between NHS England and medical companies. We have various communication channels to keep the public and stakeholders updated on our work to improve cancer care.