Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has issued guidance to departments on how private corporations wholly-owned by HM Government should exercise their accountability to Parliament, including answering Parliamentary Questions.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I refer the Hon. member to PQ 57252.
Detail on arrangements for Parliamentary accountability and governance of government companies and public corporations are set out in Annex 7.3 of Managing Public Money.
While there is no specific guidance aimed at how private corporations wholly-owned by HM Government should exercise their accountability to Parliament. The Guide to Parliamentary Work sets out the wider Government's guidance on Parliamentary Questions.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of proposals to shift from analogue to digital announced in the 10-year Health Plan for England, what provisions will be established to ensure digital exclusion does not exacerbate any existing inequalities...
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service organisations must ensure that all patients have equitable access to care, and that decisions or policies do not unfairly disadvantage people or lead to an increase in inequalities. All NHS organisations are legally obliged to not discriminate against patients or staff.
This means that a non-digital solution should be available for those patients who cannot or do not wish to engage digitally, and these non-digital routes must be available for all services provided by NHS organisations.
Aligned to the Equality Act 2010 and the Health and Social Care Act 2012, each 10-Year Health Plan policy, proposition, programme, proposal, or initiative in scope of public sector equality duties will undergo an Equality Impact Assessments and Equality and Healthcare Inequalities Impact Assessments.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to HCWS1271 on Improving Cancer Care and Early Diagnosis, which early cancer detection technologies NICE is currently assessing; what timelines apply to NICE's decisions to approve those technologies; whether funding has been allocated to adoption of approved early cancer detection technologies; what steps he is taking to help ensure that there is equitable access to early cancer detection technologies across the regions; and what steps he is taking to help ensure that innovation in early cancer detection technologies does not widen health inequalities.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently assessing a number of technologies relevant to earlier cancer detection. These include capsule sponge tests to support detection of oesophageal cancer in primary care settings, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist clinicians in identifying prostate and breast cancers from imaging. NICE is also considering potential evaluations, subject to evidence readiness and prioritisation, for technologies aimed at improving detection of endometrial cancer, and for AI-derived software to analyse chest x-rays for suspected lung cancer.
Timelines vary depending on the NICE programme through which a technology is assessed. For technologies evaluated through the Technology Appraisal programme, a positive recommendation creates a statutory funding requirement for National Health Service commissioners to make the treatment available within 90 days of final guidance publication.
NHS England is working closely with NICE and the Department to support the prioritisation for the Technology Appraisal programme. Should NICE recommend use after a Technology Appraisal, NHS England will support adoption and implementation through funding allocated across the multi-year Spending Review.
The Government is clear that innovation must narrow, not widen, health inequalities. Access to NICE-recommended technologies is a national entitlement, and where the statutory funding requirement applies it operates consistently across England, regardless of geography or care setting. NICE’s methods require consideration of equality impacts, and implementation support is designed to ensure that new detection technologies reach underserved groups and do not exacerbate existing disparities.
More broadly, the Government is taking a range of steps to ensure equitable access to earlier diagnosis. Our National Cancer Plan will drive up standards across England and tackle health inequalities head on. New cancer manuals will set out what good care looks like, with regional partnerships of health leaders and clinicians using data to drive improvements where services are falling short. The plan will also see new national standards, designed by clinicians, and better data, to inform and drive changes where they are most needed.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
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 align NICE appraisal timelines, MHRA regulatory pathways and NHS commissioning decisions to support the delivery of personalised cancer medicines.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) aims to issue guidance on new medicines close to the time of licensing to ensure that patients benefit from rapid access to clinically and cost effective new medicines. The National Health Service in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of final guidance, and cancer medicines are eligible for funding through the Cancer Drugs Fund from the point of a positive draft NICE recommendation, bringing forward patient access by up to five months.
Through the Life Sciences Sector Plan, we are improving alignment between Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency licensing and NICE guidance, helping medicines reach patients three to six months faster. This includes a coordinated pathway and integrated advice service for developers, launching in March 2026, to streamline regulatory and Health Technology Assessment processes and support timely patient access. The Life Sciences Sector Plan is published and available at the following link:
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the risks to patient safety arising from hospital records not being fully shared between different NHS trusts.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Appropriate information sharing is essential to delivering safe and effective health care. Improving this will enable enhanced quality of care and safety for patients and better informed clinical and care decision-making empowered by access to precise and comprehensive information.
NHS England has been supporting National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts in acquiring and developing the effectiveness of their electronic patient records and supporting them to reach an optimum level of digital maturity which will further reduce barriers to the sharing of information needed to treat patients.
By 2028, a new single patient record will end the need for patients to have to repeat their medical history when interacting with the NHS. By providing a complete, real-time view of patient information across regions and care settings, it will significantly improve clinical safety and performance.
Asked by: David Baines (Labour - St Helens North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is working with NHS England and other relevant bodies in the development and implementation of Modern Service Frameworks.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is supporting the development of the modern service frameworks. NICE is also represented on the National Quality Board, along with other arm’s length bodies, that oversees the development of the modern service frameworks.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Sherlock on 3 February (HL Deb col 1428), what assessments they have carried out to determine whether access to the benefits system acts as a pull factor for migrants.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Home Office is the department responsible for assessing migration trends – including pull factors for migration. The Home Office report ‘Asylum seeker decision-making in journeys to the United Kingdom (2022)’ explores the decision-making process for asylum seekers choosing to come to the UK.
Most migrants with temporary visas cannot access the benefit system. Access to public funds and benefits is usually at the point of settlement, which for most people will be after they have lived in the UK legally for five years, and the Home Office Earned Settlement policy consultation is looking at increasing this to ten years.
The Home Office are also consulting on changing the default position to maintain No Recourse to Public Funds at settlement and lifting this only at the point of British citizenship, in addition to increasing times for path to settlement from five to ten years.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the environmental impact of allowing steel importers to use global average emissions when selling steel to the UK; and what assessment they have made of the impact of this provision on competitiveness of UK steel producers.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK is taking rapid action on industrial decarbonisation to meet net zero, but we recognise that imports into the UK will often not be subject to the same standards, creating a risk of carbon leakage. That is why the UK has committed to introduce a UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) from 1 January 2027. The UK CBAM will use one global default emissions value per CBAM good where emissions are not or cannot be provided to determine the CBAM liability. We will work with HM Treasury to assess the impact of this approach and ensure we mitigate the risk of under-pricing the most emissions intensive imports when designing these values.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total monetary value was of NHS costs submitted under the European Health Insurance Card scheme that were not recovered in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under our agreements with the European Union, European Free Trade Association countries and Switzerland, we make claims to European countries for National Health Service costs incurred by temporary visitors from those countries. Claims are made in arrears and take up to four years before they are fully settled.
The following table shows the position of European Health Insurance Card and Provisional Replacement Certificate claims for the last three financial years as of 31 March 2025:
Financial year | Total value of claims submitted by UK (£000s) | Claims withdrawn by UK (£000s) | Claims paid to the UK (£000s) | Outstanding claims (£000s) |
2022/23 | 10,200 | 402 | 9,174 | 624 |
2023/24 | 12,054 | 233 | 6,570 | 5,251 |
2024/25 | 12,041 | 19 | 863 | 11,159 |
Grand Total | 34,295 | 654 | 16,606 | 17,035 |
These figures come from extracts from the NHS Business Services Authority’s claims processing database used by the Department for accounting purposes. Claims listed as withdrawn or paid have been settled whereas those listed as outstanding are still being agreed. We expect most outstanding claims to be settled in the United Kingdom’s favour.
This data excludes countries where NHS costs for temporary visitors are reimbursed based on a formula agreement which calculates costs from the number of visitors from that country to the UK. Further information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the resilience of NHS services to disruptions within the commercial laundry sector.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS England estates, commercial, and emergency preparedness, resilience, and response teams are undertaking an assessment of the provision of laundry services, in-house and out-sourced, in the National Health Service. This includes the NHS requirements for laundry services, available capacity, and the most efficient approach to their provision.