Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the average waiting time for an adult NHS dental appointment in Great Yarmouth constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Patients in England are not registered with a National Health Service dental practice, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly. There is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend. Some dental practices may operate local waiting list arrangements. Therefore, data on waiting times for NHS dental treatment is not held centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the integrated care boards' use of body mass index threshold criteria for joint replacement surgery is in line with their commitments to reduce health inequalities, particularly in regions with lower life expectancy and higher burden of obesity and musculoskeletal conditions.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of individual integrated care boards (ICBs) to determine policies for their local area, including that of the body mass index (BMI) threshold criteria for joint replacement surgery.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has developed guidelines for BMI thresholds by experts based on a thorough assessment of the available evidence and through extensive engagement with interested parties. They are not mandatory but represent best practice and National Health Service organisations are expected to take them fully into account in ensuring that local services meet the needs of their populations.
As with all surgery, BMI should be considered as part of a holistic, personalised perioperative evaluation of the risks versus clinical need for joint replacement surgery of an individual patient. However, BMI should not be considered in isolation and in and of itself should not act as a barrier to surgery.
No specific assessment has been made of the impact of BMI based restrictions on waiting times, pain, mobility, and disease progression among patients awaiting joint replacement surgery, and there are no current plans for the Department to issue guidance to ICBs on this matter.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to issue guidance to integrated care boards to stop the exclusive use of body mass index thresholds in restricting access to joint replacement surgery.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of individual integrated care boards (ICBs) to determine policies for their local area, including that of the body mass index (BMI) threshold criteria for joint replacement surgery.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has developed guidelines for BMI thresholds by experts based on a thorough assessment of the available evidence and through extensive engagement with interested parties. They are not mandatory but represent best practice and National Health Service organisations are expected to take them fully into account in ensuring that local services meet the needs of their populations.
As with all surgery, BMI should be considered as part of a holistic, personalised perioperative evaluation of the risks versus clinical need for joint replacement surgery of an individual patient. However, BMI should not be considered in isolation and in and of itself should not act as a barrier to surgery.
No specific assessment has been made of the impact of BMI based restrictions on waiting times, pain, mobility, and disease progression among patients awaiting joint replacement surgery, and there are no current plans for the Department to issue guidance to ICBs on this matter.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of body mass index-based restrictions on waiting times, pain, mobility and disease progression among patients awaiting joint replacement surgery.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of individual integrated care boards (ICBs) to determine policies for their local area, including that of the body mass index (BMI) threshold criteria for joint replacement surgery.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has developed guidelines for BMI thresholds by experts based on a thorough assessment of the available evidence and through extensive engagement with interested parties. They are not mandatory but represent best practice and National Health Service organisations are expected to take them fully into account in ensuring that local services meet the needs of their populations.
As with all surgery, BMI should be considered as part of a holistic, personalised perioperative evaluation of the risks versus clinical need for joint replacement surgery of an individual patient. However, BMI should not be considered in isolation and in and of itself should not act as a barrier to surgery.
No specific assessment has been made of the impact of BMI based restrictions on waiting times, pain, mobility, and disease progression among patients awaiting joint replacement surgery, and there are no current plans for the Department to issue guidance to ICBs on this matter.
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 11 March (HL15021), how many patients are treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma by the NHS each year.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service provides a range of treatments for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including chemotherapy as a first treatment, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapies, and stem cell transplantation for eligible patients.
Effectiveness of treatments is assessed by clinicians for individual patients using data on measures such as the responsiveness of the cancer to treatment, remission, overall survival, and quality of life. The most appropriate treatment depends on the type and stage of lymphoma and the patient’s individual circumstances, and decisions are made by specialist multidisciplinary teams.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has evaluated and recommended several Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell (CAR-T) Therapy treatments for use within the Cancer Drugs Fund for the treatment of various cancers, including for large B-cell lymphoma a sub type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which are now available to NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations. In November 2025, NHS England published commissioning guidance to support the implementation of CAR-T therapies for blood cancer.
Furthermore, the National Cancer Plan commits to ensuring rare cancer patients, including blood cancer, have improved access to targeted and personalised treatments where genomics identifies suitable options. The plan aims is to improve survival rates for rare cancers, including blood cancers by exploring novel procurement routes for diagnostics and treatments. Genomics will support the development of new treatments to improve outcomes for those with cancer.
The following table shows, from latest data available, the number of patients treated for non-Hodkin lymphoma receiving radiotherapy, systemic anti-cancer treatment (SACT), and tumour resections for their tumour, each year from 2019 to 2022:
Year | Patients treated with either radiotherapy, SACT, or surgery |
2019 | 8011 |
2020 | 7361 |
2021 | 7737 |
2022 | 7826 |
Asked by: Lord Booth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the availability of CAR T-cell therapy for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma over the next five years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service provides a range of treatments for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including chemotherapy as a first treatment, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapies, and stem cell transplantation for eligible patients.
Effectiveness of treatments is assessed by clinicians for individual patients using data on measures such as the responsiveness of the cancer to treatment, remission, overall survival, and quality of life. The most appropriate treatment depends on the type and stage of lymphoma and the patient’s individual circumstances, and decisions are made by specialist multidisciplinary teams.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has evaluated and recommended several Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell (CAR-T) Therapy treatments for use within the Cancer Drugs Fund for the treatment of various cancers, including for large B-cell lymphoma a sub type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which are now available to NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations. In November 2025, NHS England published commissioning guidance to support the implementation of CAR-T therapies for blood cancer.
Furthermore, the National Cancer Plan commits to ensuring rare cancer patients, including blood cancer, have improved access to targeted and personalised treatments where genomics identifies suitable options. The plan aims is to improve survival rates for rare cancers, including blood cancers by exploring novel procurement routes for diagnostics and treatments. Genomics will support the development of new treatments to improve outcomes for those with cancer.
The following table shows, from latest data available, the number of patients treated for non-Hodkin lymphoma receiving radiotherapy, systemic anti-cancer treatment (SACT), and tumour resections for their tumour, each year from 2019 to 2022:
Year | Patients treated with either radiotherapy, SACT, or surgery |
2019 | 8011 |
2020 | 7361 |
2021 | 7737 |
2022 | 7826 |
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to commission non-NHS community-based programmes or peer support programmes to reduce gambling and gambling-related harms among prisoners and those on probation using gambling levy funds.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In April 2025, the statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect to fund the research, prevention, and treatment of gambling-related harm in Great Britain. As part of the transition to the new levy system, commissioners are working collaboratively on the development of their programmes, drawing on expertise from across the system.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and NHS England ran separate voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) prevention and treatment grants, commissioning various projects to support people at risk of, or experiencing, gambling-related harms, and affected others.
On 7 April, OHID published a list of 33 organisations provisionally awarded over £25.4 million of funding for 2026 to 2028 through the prevention grant. Funding has been provided to organisations supporting a range of population groups, including those working with prisoners and people on probation. This will support OHID’s 'test and learn' approach to better understanding which interventions are most effective in preventing gambling harm.
NHS England has also made provisional grant funding offers to 19 VCSE organisations providing a range of treatment and support services across England.
Whilst work to finalise grant agreements is underway, it is not possible to confirm the number of levy allocations or a total funding amount targeting specific groups, including prisoners or people on probation.
The Government remains committed to tackling gambling-related harms and will continue to work with partners across the Government, including the Ministry of Justice, HM Prison and Probation Service, and the sector to identify priority populations and settings where levy-funded action may have the greatest impact. OHID is also separately distributing £12 million to upper-tier local councils for 2026 to 2027 to help them prevent and reduce gambling-related harms.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to use funds from the gambling levy for interventions for gambling disorders for prisoners and people on probation.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In April 2025, the statutory levy on gambling operators came into effect to fund the research, prevention, and treatment of gambling-related harm in Great Britain. As part of the transition to the new levy system, commissioners are working collaboratively on the development of their programmes, drawing on expertise from across the system.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and NHS England ran separate voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) prevention and treatment grants, commissioning various projects to support people at risk of, or experiencing, gambling-related harms, and affected others.
On 7 April, OHID published a list of 33 organisations provisionally awarded over £25.4 million of funding for 2026 to 2028 through the prevention grant. Funding has been provided to organisations supporting a range of population groups, including those working with prisoners and people on probation. This will support OHID’s 'test and learn' approach to better understanding which interventions are most effective in preventing gambling harm.
NHS England has also made provisional grant funding offers to 19 VCSE organisations providing a range of treatment and support services across England.
Whilst work to finalise grant agreements is underway, it is not possible to confirm the number of levy allocations or a total funding amount targeting specific groups, including prisoners or people on probation.
The Government remains committed to tackling gambling-related harms and will continue to work with partners across the Government, including the Ministry of Justice, HM Prison and Probation Service, and the sector to identify priority populations and settings where levy-funded action may have the greatest impact. OHID is also separately distributing £12 million to upper-tier local councils for 2026 to 2027 to help them prevent and reduce gambling-related harms.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
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 implications for its policies of the findings of the World Cancer Research Fund’s report on dietary and lifestyle patterns for cancer prevention, particularly the evidence on alcohol as a risk factor for bowel cancer.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and the National Health Service welcome the findings of the World Cancer Research Fund’s report and recognise that a healthy lifestyle can help reduce the biggest risk factors of bowel cancer.
The National Cancer Plan for England, published in February 2026, has patients at its heart and covers the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, as well as prevention and research and innovation. The plan sets out that every patient will receive personalised insights into their personal cancer risk, drawing on NHS, genomic, lifestyle, demographic and wearable data. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years.
The plan builds on the commitment made in ‘Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, to strengthen and expand on existing voluntary guidelines for alcohol labelling by introducing a mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages, to raise awareness of associated risks of alcohol consumption.
It emphasises prevention by supporting the no- and low-alcohol market and exploring stricter regulations on these products to cut cancer-related deaths including those related to alcohol such as bowel cancer. The plan acknowledges that alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen, linked to several cancer types including bowel cancer and aims to build on a shift from "sickness to prevention" by addressing modifiable risk factors like alcohol.
The UK Chief Medical Officers’ Low Risk Drinking Guidelines outline how the risk of developing cancer rises with ongoing regular drinking. As outlined on the NHS page ‘Risks: Alcohol Misuse’, the long-term health conditions that are caused by alcohol consumption include cancers of the liver, mouth, head and neck, breast, and bowel.
From 2026, Cancer Alliances will receive funding and work proactively with local communities and providers to improve early diagnosis rates. They will focus on increasing awareness of cancer symptoms, supporting primary care to spot signs of cancer early, including bowel cancer.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has any newly available (a) evidence or (b) modelling related to carriage studies and the potential impact of routinely offering Meningitis B vaccinations for people aged 13-25 on their health.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department makes decisions on vaccination programmes following careful consideration of independent expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The JCVI does not currently recommend a routine MenB booster vaccination for adolescents and young adults. The JCVI routinely reviews new evidence as it emerges and my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced on 17 March that the JCVI has been asked to reexamine eligibility for meningitis vaccines. However, decisions on routine vaccination programmes are taken on the basis of independent scientific advice from the JCVI. As ever, we will carefully consider their advice.
In the meantime, a targeted vaccination programme has been extended to everyone who has been offered preventative antibiotic treatment as part of this outbreak.