Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to protect communities against measles outbreaks.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Health Protection Teams continue to work with local partners to respond to measles outbreaks. In England, the UKHSA works closely with NHS England, the Department, and wider health system partners at the national, regional, and local level to respond to and prevent further outbreaks and to improve vaccination uptake for the routine childhood immunisation programme, including the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. Initiatives include improving access to the immunisation programme, using data to better identify under-served individuals and populations, training for healthcare professionals, and communication with the public, stakeholders, and media. Measles guidance is also available, and a range of leaflets and other promotional materials, in several languages, are available in print form and for download from our Health Publications website.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many deaths have been reported where the cause of death was sepsis, either on its own or with other factors, each month in the past 10 years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes annual data on the number of death registrations where sepsis was the underlying cause of death, and where sepsis was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, in England and Wales, since 2001. ONS has not yet published the number of death registrations for sepsis for 2024.
The following table shows the number of deaths registered where sepsis was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years:
Year | Number of deaths |
2014 | 22,826 |
2015 | 24,784 |
2016 | 24,973 |
2017 | 23,709 |
2018 | 23,185 |
2019 | 21,458 |
2020 | 19,324 |
2021 | 21,947 |
2022 | 25,542 |
2023 | 26,203 |
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to implement automatic enrolment into smoking cessation programmes when people register for other NHS services or check-in to appointments.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in our 10-Year Health Plan for England, we are committed to ensuring that all hospitals integrate ‘opt-out’ smoking cessation interventions into routine care. As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England has prioritised and put new funding out to integrated care boards for the rollout of tobacco dependence services in hospital settings, including acute and mental health inpatient settings and maternity services. Future funding decisions are subject to the Spending Review process.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of people diagnosed with cancer in an emergency care setting in (1) Yorkshire, and (2) other regions of the country.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer as early and quickly as possible and to treat it faster, to improve outcomes. This will help cancer patients across England, including in Yorkshire.
We are improving public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlining referral routes, and increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres. We are also investing an additional £889 million in general practices (GPs) to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade.
Alongside improving cancer waiting time performance, the NHS has implemented non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. To support the use of rapid diagnostic centres, non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways have been rolled out across England for patients who present with vague symptoms which could indicate multiple different types of cancer, for example unexplained weight-loss and fatigue.
The Government has announced that the National Cancer Plan will be published later this year, following the recent publication of the 10-Year Health Plan. The National Cancer Plan will ensure that cancer patients in England, including in Yorkshire, will have access to the best cancer care and treatments. It will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost of treating patients with prostate cancer that was not identified at an early stage; and what steps they are taking to improve early diagnosis.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing prostate cancer earlier and treating it faster. In January 2025, NHS England re-launched its Abdominal and urological symptoms of cancer phase of the Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms, including symptoms of urological cancers, as well as encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point.
In addition, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways. This includes the introduction of a best-practice timed pathway for prostate cancer so that those suspected of having prostate cancer receive a multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging scan first, which ensures that only those men most at risk of having cancer undergo an invasive biopsy. For patients, the prostate best-practice timed pathway may reduce anxiety and uncertainty of a possible cancer diagnosis, with less time between referral and receiving the outcome of a diagnostic test.
A new National Cancer Plan will be published later this year which will include further details on how the NHS will improve outcomes for all cancer patients, including those with prostate cancer. The plan will set out actions for speeding up diagnosis and treatment.
Given the wide-ranging work being taken forward, the Department has not made a formal assessment of the specific cost of treating patients with prostate cancer that was not identified at an early stage.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the higher risk of prostate cancer in black men, and what steps they are taking to provide support to black men with a higher risk profile.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government understands that more needs to be done to improve outcomes for all people with prostate cancer, including black men, who we know are two to three times more likely to develop prostate cancer than white men.
To address disparities and find ways to better detect prostate cancer earlier, we have invested £16 million in the United Kingdom-wide TRANSFORM trial, aimed at helping to find the best ways of detecting prostate cancer in men, even if they are not displaying any symptoms. This research will aim to address some of the inequalities that exist in prostate cancer diagnosis by targeting black men in trial recruitment, ensuring that one in ten participants are black men. We have also asked the National Screening Committee to review the evidence for introducing prostate cancer screening, including for high-risk groups.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the national cancer plan will include steps to integrate exercise, nutrition and well-being support into prehabilitation and rehabilitation programmes for all cancer patients, as recommended in The White Rose Cancer Report, published by Yorkshire Cancer Research on 18 June; and what plans they have to adopt the ROSE model to ensure equity in research funding and implementation across the country.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and the National Health Service recognise the importance of physical activity for the prevention and management of long-term health conditions, including cancer.
The National Cancer Plan, due to be published later this year, will set out how experiences and outcomes can be improved for people at every stage of the cancer pathway, including prehabilitation and rehabilitation. The Department acknowledges that more can be done to support people living with and beyond cancer.
The NHS Cancer Programme, through local Cancer Alliances, is working to ensure physical activity is fully integrated across the whole cancer pathway, which includes opportunities within rehabilitation for people who have undergone treatment.
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 in 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 personalised care, prehabilitation, and rehabilitation in the cancer pathway.
The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments, and to supporting equity of research funding and implementation cross the country.
The Department funded National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) supports the principles outlined in the ROSE model, by funding research and research infrastructure, which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research.
The NIHR has made research inclusion a condition of its funding. Applicants to domestic research programmes are required to demonstrate how inclusion is being built into all stages of the research lifecycle and are also required to provide details of how their research contributes towards the NIHR’s mission to reduce health and care inequalities.
The NIHR’s Applied Research Collaborations are regional partnerships which generate high-quality research and evaluation, and work with the system to support the scaling and adoption of effective interventions and models of care nationally, particularly in areas of high disease burden and service demand.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care that the Government would build “250 to 300 new neighbourhood health centres” (HC Deb col 449), and further to the statement on page 32 of the NHS's 10 Year Plan for England: fit for the future that a neighbourhood would consist of 50,000 people, how they will ensure that all 57 million people in England will be covered by a neighbourhood health centre.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The geography of neighbourhoods should be determined locally by integrated care boards in partnership with their strategic partners, particularly local authorities. The Government aims to establish a Neighbourhood Health Centre in every community as we shift from hospital to community. Nationwide coverage will take time, but we will start in areas with the greatest need, for instance where healthy life expectancy is lowest, including coastal towns and communities with higher deprivation levels. Wherever possible, we will maximise value for money by repurposing poorly used, existing National Health Service and public sector estates. The Department is also currently writing a business case on Public Private Partnerships for Neighbourhood Health Centres for review as part of the Autumn Budget.
The Neighbourhood Health Service will embody our new preventative principle that care should happen as locally as it can, digitally by default, in a patient’s home if possible, in a Neighbourhood Health Centre when needed, and only in a hospital if necessary. The Neighbourhood Health Service will mean millions of patients are treated and cared for closer to home by new teams of professionals. We have launched the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme to support systems across the country to test new ways of working, share learning, and scale what works. This programme will inform future strategy and policy development, and outcome metrics will be rigorously monitored.
To support neighbourhood health, we will introduce two new contracts, with roll-out beginning next year, one of which will create neighbourhood providers that deliver enhanced services for groups with similar needs over a footprint of approximately 50,000 people. In many areas, existing groups of general practices will be well placed to take on these contracts.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential cost savings to the NHS and social care system of implementing automatic stop smoking support at NHS touchpoints; and how will that inform future funding decisions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Whilst no specific assessment has been made of the potential cost savings from stop smoking support in all National Health Services, we know that supporting more people to stop smoking reduces preventable illness and therefore pressure on health and social care services.
An evaluation of a pilot opt-out model in Manchester showed the gross financial return was £2.12, and the public value return was £30.49, per £1 invested. NHS England has also made a tool that estimates the potential cost savings associated with the reduced demand on front line services available for maternity services.
As of the end of 2024/25, 93% of NHS in-patient services and 97% of maternity services had a tobacco dependence treatment offer.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we remain committed to ensuring that all hospitals integrate smoking cessation interventions into routine care. As part of their allocations for 2025/26, integrated care boards have access to funding to support the provision of tobacco dependency treatment for smokers. Funding for future years is subject to final decisions following the recent Spending Review.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage the use of surgical robotics in prostate cancer treatment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England currently commissions robotic assisted surgical procedures for the treatment of prostate cancer for patients who meet the necessary criteria.
In June 2025, NHS England announced a commitment to expand robotic-assisted surgery over the next 10 years for a range of procedures. Following the announcement, NHS England published guidance for National Health Service systems to implement robotic-assisted surgery in the NHS.
Furthermore, on 3 July 2025, the Department published the 10-Year Health Plan which outlines our commitment to expand surgical robot adoption in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.