Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what nations form the European Carrier Group Initiative.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The European Carrier Group Interoperability Initiative comprises the UK, France, Italy and Spain (Carrier Nations), alongside the non-Carrier members of Portugal, Greece, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 78691 on Railways: Concessions, whether Great British Railways plans to use ticket pricing to (a) manage demand and (b) reduce crowding on trains.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Great British Railways (GBR) will be empowered to deliver industry-wide modernisation and fares reform, including considering the most effective ways to manage issues such as crowding.
We are already making progress in considering options to address this, including through supporting LNER in trialling easier to understand fares on their long-distance network between the London area and Edinburgh and the North East. This aims to address the inefficient and unacceptable situation where some ‘peak’ trains run nearly empty while some ‘off-peak’ trains are crowded. We are doing this by moving towards more flexible, demand-based pricing – a model commonly used for long-distance rail in countries such as France, Italy, and Spain. The results of this trial will be carefully considered before any decisions on next steps are taken.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how survival rates for brain cancer in the United Kingdom compare with those of other countries of equivalent wealth.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing the number of lives lost to cancer is a key aim of the National Cancer Plan for England, which will be published later this year. The plan will include further details on how the Government will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including brain cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately driving up this country’s cancer survival rates.
The Department is committed to working closely with partners and patient groups to shape the long-term vision for cancer. On 4 February 2025, the Department launched a call for evidence for the National Cancer Plan which closed on 29 April. We have received over 11,000 responses from individuals, professionals, and organisations who have shared their views on how we can do more to achieve our ambition, including several brain cancer charities. The call for evidence gave an opportunity to all partners to shape the National Cancer Plan. These submissions are being used to inform our plan to improve cancer care.
The Department recognises that cancer patients, including those with brain tumours, are often waiting too long for referral and treatment. As the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and treatment, NHS England has delivered an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week since the start of this administration.
The Department is supporting NHS England in implementing genomic testing, including whole genome sequencing (WGS), in the National Health Service, provided through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, and delivered by a national genomic testing network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). The NHS GLHs deliver testing as directed by the National Genomic Test Directory, which includes tests for over 200 cancer clinical indications, including WGS tests for a range of brain tumours. The NHS now offers all children and young people with cancer, and adults with certain cancers including brain cancer, whole genome sequencing to enable more comprehensive and precise diagnosis, and access to more personalised treatments.
The Department recognises that there are currently limited treatment options available for people who have been diagnosed with brain tumours, and the significant impact that rarer forms of cancer can have on patients, carers, and their families. A new national Brain Tumour Research Consortium was established in December 2024 to bring together researchers from a range of different disciplines and institutions with the aim of driving scientific advancements in how to prevent, detect, manage, and treat cancers in adults and children. The work being undertaken by the consortium aims to ensure that patients have access to the latest treatments and technology and to clinical trials. This will make a significant contribution to bringing the United Kingdom’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world. The following table shows brain cancer five-year survival percentages for adults, those aged 15 to 99 years old, diagnosed from 2010 to 2014, by G7 country:
Country | Cancer site | Five-year net survival |
Japan | Brain (adults) | 46.3% |
USA | Brain (adults) | 36.5% |
Canada | Brain (adults) | 29.9% |
Germany | Brain (adults) | 29.6% |
Italy | Brain (adults) | 28.8% |
France | Brain (adults) | 27.2% |
UK | Brain (adults) | 26.3% |
Source: CONCORD-3, CONCORD Programme, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
This data will be updated with the publication of CONCORD-4, which is currently in progress.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to meet Brain Cancer Justice.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing the number of lives lost to cancer is a key aim of the National Cancer Plan for England, which will be published later this year. The plan will include further details on how the Government will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including brain cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately driving up this country’s cancer survival rates.
The Department is committed to working closely with partners and patient groups to shape the long-term vision for cancer. On 4 February 2025, the Department launched a call for evidence for the National Cancer Plan which closed on 29 April. We have received over 11,000 responses from individuals, professionals, and organisations who have shared their views on how we can do more to achieve our ambition, including several brain cancer charities. The call for evidence gave an opportunity to all partners to shape the National Cancer Plan. These submissions are being used to inform our plan to improve cancer care.
The Department recognises that cancer patients, including those with brain tumours, are often waiting too long for referral and treatment. As the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and treatment, NHS England has delivered an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week since the start of this administration.
The Department is supporting NHS England in implementing genomic testing, including whole genome sequencing (WGS), in the National Health Service, provided through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, and delivered by a national genomic testing network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). The NHS GLHs deliver testing as directed by the National Genomic Test Directory, which includes tests for over 200 cancer clinical indications, including WGS tests for a range of brain tumours. The NHS now offers all children and young people with cancer, and adults with certain cancers including brain cancer, whole genome sequencing to enable more comprehensive and precise diagnosis, and access to more personalised treatments.
The Department recognises that there are currently limited treatment options available for people who have been diagnosed with brain tumours, and the significant impact that rarer forms of cancer can have on patients, carers, and their families. A new national Brain Tumour Research Consortium was established in December 2024 to bring together researchers from a range of different disciplines and institutions with the aim of driving scientific advancements in how to prevent, detect, manage, and treat cancers in adults and children. The work being undertaken by the consortium aims to ensure that patients have access to the latest treatments and technology and to clinical trials. This will make a significant contribution to bringing the United Kingdom’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world. The following table shows brain cancer five-year survival percentages for adults, those aged 15 to 99 years old, diagnosed from 2010 to 2014, by G7 country:
Country | Cancer site | Five-year net survival |
Japan | Brain (adults) | 46.3% |
USA | Brain (adults) | 36.5% |
Canada | Brain (adults) | 29.9% |
Germany | Brain (adults) | 29.6% |
Italy | Brain (adults) | 28.8% |
France | Brain (adults) | 27.2% |
UK | Brain (adults) | 26.3% |
Source: CONCORD-3, CONCORD Programme, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
This data will be updated with the publication of CONCORD-4, which is currently in progress.
Asked by: Lord Crisp (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve survival rates from brain cancers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing the number of lives lost to cancer is a key aim of the National Cancer Plan for England, which will be published later this year. The plan will include further details on how the Government will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including brain cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately driving up this country’s cancer survival rates.
The Department is committed to working closely with partners and patient groups to shape the long-term vision for cancer. On 4 February 2025, the Department launched a call for evidence for the National Cancer Plan which closed on 29 April. We have received over 11,000 responses from individuals, professionals, and organisations who have shared their views on how we can do more to achieve our ambition, including several brain cancer charities. The call for evidence gave an opportunity to all partners to shape the National Cancer Plan. These submissions are being used to inform our plan to improve cancer care.
The Department recognises that cancer patients, including those with brain tumours, are often waiting too long for referral and treatment. As the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and treatment, NHS England has delivered an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week since the start of this administration.
The Department is supporting NHS England in implementing genomic testing, including whole genome sequencing (WGS), in the National Health Service, provided through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, and delivered by a national genomic testing network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). The NHS GLHs deliver testing as directed by the National Genomic Test Directory, which includes tests for over 200 cancer clinical indications, including WGS tests for a range of brain tumours. The NHS now offers all children and young people with cancer, and adults with certain cancers including brain cancer, whole genome sequencing to enable more comprehensive and precise diagnosis, and access to more personalised treatments.
The Department recognises that there are currently limited treatment options available for people who have been diagnosed with brain tumours, and the significant impact that rarer forms of cancer can have on patients, carers, and their families. A new national Brain Tumour Research Consortium was established in December 2024 to bring together researchers from a range of different disciplines and institutions with the aim of driving scientific advancements in how to prevent, detect, manage, and treat cancers in adults and children. The work being undertaken by the consortium aims to ensure that patients have access to the latest treatments and technology and to clinical trials. This will make a significant contribution to bringing the United Kingdom’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world. The following table shows brain cancer five-year survival percentages for adults, those aged 15 to 99 years old, diagnosed from 2010 to 2014, by G7 country:
Country | Cancer site | Five-year net survival |
Japan | Brain (adults) | 46.3% |
USA | Brain (adults) | 36.5% |
Canada | Brain (adults) | 29.9% |
Germany | Brain (adults) | 29.6% |
Italy | Brain (adults) | 28.8% |
France | Brain (adults) | 27.2% |
UK | Brain (adults) | 26.3% |
Source: CONCORD-3, CONCORD Programme, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
This data will be updated with the publication of CONCORD-4, which is currently in progress.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to help reduce the number of small boat crossings since her appointment.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Border Security Command (BSC) continues to focus on tackling the organised immigration crime gangs that are facilitating small boat crossings, working with domestic partners such as the National Crime Agency and the OIC Domestic taskforce, and overseas counterparts in a range of countries, to dismantle the gangs and disrupt their supply chains. This work has already led to a number of widely publicised raids and arrests, as well as agreements with France, Germany, Italy, Iraq and other key partners which will increase enforcement activity and cooperation further over the coming months.
The UK-France pilot has also been put into action meaning that anyone entering the UK on a small boat can be detained on arrival and returned to France. So far 42 individuals have been returned to France under this pilot and further flights to France are scheduled to take place over the coming days and weeks. Through our joint working with France, more than 19,000 crossing attempts have been prevented this year.
The BSC is working closely with delivery partners across Whitehall who tackle organised immigration crime, collecting key data across the system such as organised immigration crime disruptions, with the ambition to track long-term impact and support the delivery of operational activity. This will support the BSC’s ability to drive cohesive delivery across the system and ensure a secure and effective border. Working collaboratively in this way will allow us to increase the number of organised immigration crime groups which we break up and subsequently reduce small boat crossings. These numbers will be monitored to ensure we make changes to our approach when needed.
And as most recently as last week, the Home Secretary hosted Interior Ministers in London as part of the Western Balkans Summit. She hosted her ministerial counterparts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia – all of which are key transit countries for people being smuggled illegally to the UK.
Ensuring we have the right legislation in place to take robust, meaningful action to address these challenges is crucial. With this in mind, the UK’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, currently going through Parliament, creates new powers for law enforcement through new criminal offences, expanded data-sharing capabilities and an improved intelligence picture to identify, intercept, disrupt and prevent serious and organised crime.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
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 trends of mental health disorders in children and young people in England compared to other comparator countries.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst there has not been a formal assessment of the trends in children and young people’s mental health problems in England compared to other countries, work continues with partners across the United Kingdom and internationally on a range of issues relating to mental health, including mental health disorders in children and young people.
Through resources such as the Global Burden of Disease study, we closely monitor international policy developments in mental health to harness insights. For example, the six new 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres being piloted across England are inspired by the community model of mental health care originally pioneered in Trieste, Italy.
Estimates of the rates and trends in the prevalence of adults’ and children and young people’s mental health problems are reported in the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey series and the Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey series.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of working with comparator countries to understand causal factors in trends of mental health disorders in children and young people.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst there has not been a formal assessment of the trends in children and young people’s mental health problems in England compared to other countries, work continues with partners across the United Kingdom and internationally on a range of issues relating to mental health, including mental health disorders in children and young people.
Through resources such as the Global Burden of Disease study, we closely monitor international policy developments in mental health to harness insights. For example, the six new 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres being piloted across England are inspired by the community model of mental health care originally pioneered in Trieste, Italy.
Estimates of the rates and trends in the prevalence of adults’ and children and young people’s mental health problems are reported in the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey series and the Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey series.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
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 trend of mental health disorders in children and young people in England in relation to the trend in poor mental health in adults.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst there has not been a formal assessment of the trends in children and young people’s mental health problems in England compared to other countries, work continues with partners across the United Kingdom and internationally on a range of issues relating to mental health, including mental health disorders in children and young people.
Through resources such as the Global Burden of Disease study, we closely monitor international policy developments in mental health to harness insights. For example, the six new 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres being piloted across England are inspired by the community model of mental health care originally pioneered in Trieste, Italy.
Estimates of the rates and trends in the prevalence of adults’ and children and young people’s mental health problems are reported in the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey series and the Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey series.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to improve (a) military and (b) other defence cooperation with Italy.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Through regular meetings between our Defence Secretaries, our bilateral High-Level Military Dialogue, and interaction through other groupings such as NATO and E5 Defence Ministers Group, we continuously explore how the UK and Italy can better work together to address issues of shared strategic interest.
In recent years, the relationship has been consolidated by our commitment to the Global Combat Air Programme alongside Japan which achieved Treaty Ratification in December 2024. Additionally, in February 2025, we signed the Statement of Intent for Capabilities and Complex Weapons which will enable deeper collaboration on defence exports and industry. Operationally, only two European nations with carrier-capable F-35B aircraft, we continue to deepen interoperability between our Carrier Strike Groups. This was clear to see during Ex MED STRIKE which took place during the UK Carrier Strike Group's transit of the Mediterranean earlier this year. During this exercise, the UK's Carrier Strike Group combined with the Italian Carrier Strike Group, conducting essential training together including on anti-submarine warfare and air defence tactics.