Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason only three NHS prescriptions for medical cannabis have been issued to children with severe intractable epilepsy since the law was changed in November 2018 to enable those prescriptions to be made in specialist cases.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The licensed cannabis-based medicine Epidyolex is prescribed and routinely funded by the National Health Service for two rare forms of epilepsy - Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.
Clinical guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence demonstrate a need for more evidence to support routine prescribing and funding decisions for unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use. We continue to call on manufacturers to conduct this research and we are working with regulatory, research and NHS partners to establish clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of these products.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to prepare for the implementation of the UK NSC’s recommendation on lung cancer screening.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) plans to open a three-month public consultation on the evidence for lung cancer screening in the week commencing 7 March 2022. The Department will receive the UK NSC’s recommendation on lung cancer screening in individuals at an increased risk following its meeting in June 2022.
If recommended, NHS England and NHS Improvement will be responsible for implementing the programme in England and preparatory work is underway.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to COVID-19 Response: Living with COVID-19, published on 21 February 2022, what steps his Department are taking to help ensure that NHS England's Targeted Lung Health Check programme is able to return to and exceed its pre-pandemic levels of performance.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
All Targeted Lung Health Check (TLHC) sites were operational by September 2020 and are issuing in excess of 30,000 invitations each month, compared to 1,555 each month prior to the pandemic. In 2022/23, the number of operational THLCs sites will increase from 23 to 43, funded by up to £70 million from the NHS Cancer Programme. The UK National Screening Committee is currently considering whether TLHCs should be recommended as a national screening programme.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on what date will the lung screening pilots in England recommence following their suspension in March 2020.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
All Targeted Lung Health Check (TLHC) sites were operational by September 2020 and are issuing in excess of 30,000 invitations each month, compared to 1,555 each month prior to the pandemic. In 2022/23, the number of operational THLCs sites will increase from 23 to 43, funded by up to £70 million from the NHS Cancer Programme. The UK National Screening Committee is currently considering whether TLHCs should be recommended as a national screening programme.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his timeline is for approval of the national lung cancer screening programme following its suspension in March 2020 due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
All Targeted Lung Health Check (TLHC) sites were operational by September 2020 and are issuing in excess of 30,000 invitations each month, compared to 1,555 each month prior to the pandemic. In 2022/23, the number of operational THLCs sites will increase from 23 to 43, funded by up to £70 million from the NHS Cancer Programme. The UK National Screening Committee is currently considering whether TLHCs should be recommended as a national screening programme.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what budget his Department has allocated to Health Education England for workforce growth and medical education in the financial year 2022-23.
Answered by Edward Argar
Health Education England’s (HEE) budget for 2022/23 will be announced prior to 1 April 2022.
Spending plans for individual budgets, including for HEE’s budgets for workforce growth and medical education from 2022/23 to 2024/25, will be subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and finalised in due course.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Process Review of 8 August 2019 and the MHRA guidance issued in December 2021, if the Government will fund an alternative study into the potential merits of medical cannabis for children suffering from severe intractable epilepsy.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Research funding can be accessed through applications to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR relies on researchers submitting high-quality applications and welcomes research proposals to evaluate the safety and clinical efficacy of cannabis-based products for medicinal use. The NIHR and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will consider novel trial designs and it is not a specific requirement to conduct double blind trials. The MHRA has recently published guidance on the use of real-world data in clinical studies to support regulatory decisions.
The NIHR and the National Health Service will be supporting two randomised controlled trials into epilepsy. Alternative research approaches, such as an observational study, were considered in the trial design but discounted as it would not produce robust results nor add to the current evidence base.
In 2018, NHS England asked the British Paediatric Neurology Association (BPNA) to develop interim guidance for clinicians in the use and prescription of cannabis‐based products for medicinal use in children and young people with epilepsy. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) then published guidelines covering prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products for people with intractable nausea and vomiting, chronic pain, spasticity and severe treatment-resistant epilepsy. The BPNA has subsequently updated their guidance. As with all decisions to prescribe medicines, the General Medical Council expects doctors to use their professional judgement when deciding to what extent any clinical guidance is relevant.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Government response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s report on Medicinal Cannabis in September 2019, what plans he has to ensure that the role of guidance from the BPNA relating to medical cannabis is replaced by the recently published guidance by NICE.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Research funding can be accessed through applications to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR relies on researchers submitting high-quality applications and welcomes research proposals to evaluate the safety and clinical efficacy of cannabis-based products for medicinal use. The NIHR and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will consider novel trial designs and it is not a specific requirement to conduct double blind trials. The MHRA has recently published guidance on the use of real-world data in clinical studies to support regulatory decisions.
The NIHR and the National Health Service will be supporting two randomised controlled trials into epilepsy. Alternative research approaches, such as an observational study, were considered in the trial design but discounted as it would not produce robust results nor add to the current evidence base.
In 2018, NHS England asked the British Paediatric Neurology Association (BPNA) to develop interim guidance for clinicians in the use and prescription of cannabis‐based products for medicinal use in children and young people with epilepsy. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) then published guidelines covering prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products for people with intractable nausea and vomiting, chronic pain, spasticity and severe treatment-resistant epilepsy. The BPNA has subsequently updated their guidance. As with all decisions to prescribe medicines, the General Medical Council expects doctors to use their professional judgement when deciding to what extent any clinical guidance is relevant.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Government's response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s report on Drugs Policy: Medicinal Cannabis, published in September 2019, what steps his Department has taken with the National Institute for Health Research to develop alternative research approaches to support children who are currently receiving cannabis-based products for medicinal use rather than randomised control trials, as set out in that response.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
Research funding can be accessed through applications to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR relies on researchers submitting high-quality applications and welcomes research proposals to evaluate the safety and clinical efficacy of cannabis-based products for medicinal use. The NIHR and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will consider novel trial designs and it is not a specific requirement to conduct double blind trials. The MHRA has recently published guidance on the use of real-world data in clinical studies to support regulatory decisions.
The NIHR and the National Health Service will be supporting two randomised controlled trials into epilepsy. Alternative research approaches, such as an observational study, were considered in the trial design but discounted as it would not produce robust results nor add to the current evidence base.
In 2018, NHS England asked the British Paediatric Neurology Association (BPNA) to develop interim guidance for clinicians in the use and prescription of cannabis‐based products for medicinal use in children and young people with epilepsy. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) then published guidelines covering prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products for people with intractable nausea and vomiting, chronic pain, spasticity and severe treatment-resistant epilepsy. The BPNA has subsequently updated their guidance. As with all decisions to prescribe medicines, the General Medical Council expects doctors to use their professional judgement when deciding to what extent any clinical guidance is relevant.