Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to improve procedures for processing gestational diabetes blood glucose tests to improve the accuracy of diagnosis.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is responsible for setting clinical guidelines. For diabetes in pregnancy, including testing for gestational diabetes, the relevant clinical guideline is NG3 - Diabetes in pregnancy: management from preconception to the postnatal period, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng3/chapter/Recommendations#gestational-diabetes
The Department provides funding to the National Institute for Health and Care Research for research to help improve procedures around gestational diabetes, such as the DOMINO study, with further information available at the following link:
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR134628
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consideration he has given to supporting the National Screening Committee to (a) more swiftly implement innovation within screening programmes and (b) adopt innovative new programmes once proven effective.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) and its secretariat have adopted several robust strategies that support responsiveness to innovation in screening.
The committee uses the expertise of its research and methodology group to help researchers focus the design of screening research to ensure it addresses questions in a way that is useful for screening policy. Where screening research trials are ongoing, the secretariat maintains close contact with researchers to ensure that we are proactive in response to the results coming out of the trial.
Where there are evidence gaps in screening research, in-service evaluations provide an innovative solution to generating high quality evidence for the UK NSC in live National Health Services. The UK NSC secretariat works closely with NHS England on upcoming work so that the NHS can optimise their preparations in their readiness for the implementation of recommendations agreed by ministers.
Networking across the healthcare landscape both nationally and internationally helps to ensure that the UK NSC keeps abreast of developments in screening and identifies viable innovations in tests and treatments that are suitable in the context of the United Kingdom. Collaboration between organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, and professional bodies such as the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists supports joined up working with partners and avoids unnecessary duplication.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
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 merits of including (a) prehabilitation and (b) rehabilitation as essential elements of cancer treatment.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England are taking a number of steps to support the National Health Service to deliver cost-effective prehabilitation and rehabilitation services.
NHS England has highlighted the positive impact of efficient prehabilitation and rehabilitation on cancer outcomes and the potential to lead to cost savings. The ‘PRosPer’ cancer prehabilitation and rehabilitation learning programme, launched as a partnership between NHS England and Macmillan Cancer Support, aims to support allied health professionals and the wider healthcare workforce in developing their skills in providing prehabilitation and rehabilitation as essential elements of cancer treatment.
The National Cancer Plan, to be published later this year, will look at how to improve patient outcomes across the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, including prehabilitation and rehabilitation services where appropriate.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
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 the NHS lung cancer screening programme receives sufficient funding to ensure its completion by 2029.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service will build on its recent successes, including roll-out of the National Lung Cancer Screening Programme, to diagnose cancer earlier and boost survival rates. Funding for national lung screening is set by NHS England and the timescale for full implementation of the National Lung Cancer Screening Programme will be specified in due course.
The NHS is currently rolling out the National Lung Cancer Screening Programme to people with a history of smoking. The public health functions agreement between NHS England and the Department sets out that the Lung Cancer Screening Programme has a target to invite 50% of the eligible population by the end of March 2026.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
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 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (a) review and (b) update clinical guidelines on (i) diagnosis and (ii) treatment of type 1 diabetes and eating disorders.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for determining whether its guidelines should be reviewed or updated in light of new evidence. NICE takes a proactive approach to surveillance, monitoring for changes in the evidence base that may impact on its recommendations. Topics for new or updated guidance are considered through the NICE prioritisation process. Decisions as to whether NICE will create new, or update existing, guidance are overseen by a prioritisation board, chaired by NICE’s Chief Medical Officer.
NICE intends to carry out focussed updates to all diabetes guidance to take account of changes in insulin availability, but has no current plans for further updates to its guidelines on type 1 diabetes or eating disorders.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Integrated Care Boards will be required to provide sustainable funding for successful pilot projects on Type 1 Diabetes and Eating Disorders to become regional centres of excellence.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has provided up to £1.5 million a year for the five current Type 1 Disordered Eating pilots for three years. This funding is transferred to integrated care boards on an annual basis and in 2025/26 has been ringfenced.
Decisions on funding for future years have yet to be taken.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
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 raise awareness of Type 1 Diabetes and Eating Disorders among healthcare professionals in (a) diabetes and (b) eating disorder services.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is currently funding five Type 1 Disordered Eating (T1DE) Pilots, with the aim of increasing understanding of the characteristics and care needs of people with T1DE, assessing the feasibility of the service delivery model and build the evidence base for an integrated diabetes and mental health pathway. Pilot sites are delivering a national high level service specification alongside testing local novel approaches to improving care including to awareness raising of the condition amongst both diabetes and eating disorder health care professionals.
A national evaluation is currently underway to assess the impact of the five current pilot services. NHS England will review the evaluation findings to understand further opportunities to promote awareness of Type 1 disordered eating amongst healthcare professionals.
NHS England works alongside its partners to support the delivery of key messages around diabetes education and awareness. This includes through a digital diabetes platform which is developing educational resources for T1DE.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will ringfence funding for independent patient advocacy services after the abolition of Healthwatch.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The independent complaints advocacy service in the National Health Service is covered by a wider grant for Local Reform and Community Voices and is not a requirement of Healthwatch England or Local Healthwatch. This grant provides funding to local authorities which assists them in meeting statutory duties. This funding will continue to be provided. This grant has not been ringfenced to date and there are no plans to ringfence it, moving forward.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he will take to ensure that (a) the views of patients and (b) patient engagement are independently provided to (a) his Department, (b) the NHS, and (c) local authorities after Healthwatch's abolition.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Dr Dash’s review of patient safety across the health and care landscape was published in July 2025. The review recommends bringing together the work of local Healthwatch organisations, and the engagement functions of integrated care boards and providers, to ensure patient and wider community input into the planning and design of services.
In addition, as also recommended by the review, we are amalgamating the functions of Healthwatch England to a new directorate. Its strategic functions will be transferred to the new directorate for patient experience in NHS England, transferring, in due course, to the new structures in the Department. This directorate will be responsible for overseeing the collection of more informed feedback from both patients, service users and carers and significantly improving the complaints function across the National Health Service.
These changes will improve quality, including safety, by making it clear where responsibility and accountability sit at all levels of the system, and making it easier for staff, patients and users to directly feed into the system to improve quality of care. We believe that patients and users will have a stronger voice once it is heard inside the system.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has conducted an impact assessment of the effect of the abolition of Healthwatch on (a) patient representation, (b) accountability and (c) local authority scrutiny functions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The abolition of Healthwatch England, the transfer of its functions and the changes to local Healthwatch require primary legislation. Timing of this is subject to the will of parliament and will happen when parliamentary time allows. A full impact assessment would be produced in line with HM Treasury's Green Book standards and published on the Government website when legislation is introduced in Parliament. No assessment has been made at this time, although the expertise of Dr Dash and her critical review of patient safiety will continue to guide the Government’s policy in this regard.