Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the extent to which obesity levels in England can be reduced, and (2) whether any such reduction can be driven by government action; and what steps they are taking to reduce levels of obesity in England.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling the obesity crisis, easing the strain on our National Health Service and raising the healthiest generation of children ever.
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan and published impact assessments, obesity can be reduced over time through sustained improvements in diet at the population level.
The Government is taking bold action to address the obesity crisis. As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, we are consulting on applying the new Nutrient Profiling Model to the existing advertising and promotions restrictions for less healthy food and drink. Illustrative modelling published alongside the consultation suggests this could prevent almost 520,000 cases of adult obesity and over 110,000 cases of childhood obesity over time. We also announced a world first to introduce mandatory healthier food sales reporting for all large food businesses, which could reduce approximately 340,000 cases of childhood obesity, although these figures are provisional and subject to refinement through subsequent impact assessments. This is alongside existing action to restrict junk food advertising on television and online and to give councils stronger powers to block new fast-food outlets near schools.
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 to ensure an equitable provision of radiotherapy treatment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department remains committed to ensuring that all patients have timely access to cutting-edge cancer treatments, including radiotherapy. This commitment has been demonstrated by a £70 million investment into 28 new LINAC radiotherapy machines, which are currently being rolled out and replacing outdated, inefficient radiotherapy equipment. These new machines will reduce waiting times and increase treatment capacity by 15%, enabling an additional 27,500 patients to be treated each year.
We expect that local systems will continue to look for opportunities to streamline radiotherapy treatment services, improve treatment availability, and harness artificial intelligence technology to support oncologists to plan radiotherapy treatments faster and more accurately.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the neighbourhood health framework will support the early identification and prevention of chronic kidney disease.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Neighbourhood Health Framework is designed to provide clarity and consistency to integrated care boards (ICBs), local authorities, and their partners, in developing and scaling neighbourhood health.
It is important that reforms are locally led, as ICBs and local authorities are best placed to design services that make sense for their local populations. Local systems can choose to go further than the minimum aims set out in the framework, and this could include a focus on chronic kidney disease.
Early diagnosis of chronic kidney disease is supported through widespread access to blood and urine tests across the National Health Service, including in primary care and community diagnostic services.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (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 proposal for a system for equitable distribution of general medical practitioners in England, submitted to the Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care on 22 February by John G Gooderham.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it. This workforce plan will set out how we will deliver that change by making sure that staff are better treated, have better training, more fulfilling roles, and hope for the future.
We are investing £485 million in general practices (GPs) in 2026/27, bringing the total spend on the GP Contract to over £13.8 billion. This builds on the £1.1 billion boost in investment in 2025/26. As part of the 26/27 GP Contract, we are increasing flexibility of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) by removing the restriction that ARRS funding can only be used for recently qualified GPs, increasing the maximum reimbursement amount for GP roles to reflect experience, and enabling primary care networks to recruit a broader range of ARRS roles, where agreed with the commissioner.
Following feedback from the 2026/27 GP Contract consultation, we are introducing a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme which ring-fences and repurposes £292 million of funding from the current Capacity and Access Payment. This funding will be available to practices to hire additional GPs or fund additional sessions with existing GPs to improve access in practices. This aims to strengthen capacity, access, and improve patient satisfaction, whilst also addressing GP unemployment and underemployment.
We know that the way core GP funding is allocated across England is considered outdated and we recognise the importance of ensuring funding for core services is distributed equitably between practices across the country. This is why we are currently reviewing the GP funding formula, the Carr-Hill formula, to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed.
The first phase of the review is expected to conclude in March 2026. Subject to ministerial decision, further work would be undertaken to technically develop and model any proposed changes to the formula. Findings from the review will be published in due course by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
The proposal has been received and Government officials will assess it in the normal manner.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what further steps they plan to take to safeguard a reliable supply of radioisotopes for use in the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The resilience of United Kingdom supply chains is a key priority, and the Department and NHS England are committed to helping to build long term supply chain resilience for medicines. We recognise the importance of ensuring a resilient and reliable supply of medical isotopes and how important that is for patients and for the National Health Service. We regularly engage with industry partners to support continued supply of medical radioisotopes to the NHS, including responding to supply disruptions. The Department is working with the NHS and other parts of the Government to better understand future needs for medical radioisotopes.
In respect to isotope production and associated research in the UK, the Government has made up to £520 million available through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund to support UK manufacture of medicine and medical technology products. This includes applications looking to establish, expand, or improve UK-based manufacture of medical radioisotopes for diagnostic or therapeutic applications. In addition, last year, the Government also announced a £54 million funding package for eight innovative research and development projects, including £9.9 million earmarked for Project Alpha to explore how to make medical treatments from legacy nuclear material, something that could unlock the UK’s potential to develop promising new cancer therapies.
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 Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 19 January (HL13473), whether the department has considered allowing the term probiotic to be used in mandatory product labelling, notwithstanding its current treatment as a health claim.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information that must be provided and can be provided on food labels is set out in legislation. The use of specific terms and statements that can be made on food labels is also subject to nutrition and health claims legislation. ‘Probiotic’ is a term commonly used to describe the effect of one or more strains of live bacteria used in food and food supplements. The Department considers the term ‘probiotic’ to constitute a health claim, as it implies that consuming a food or food supplement containing these bacteria may provide a health benefit. The term ‘probiotic’ could only be used on food labels if a specific authorised health claim existed for the particular strain of live bacteria used, which have been scientifically substantiated and authorised in accordance with nutrition and health claims legislation.
There are currently no authorised health claims for probiotics or specific bacterial strains.
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 the report by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a mental health problem, published on 26 February, what steps they plan to take to ensure that vulnerable patients are appropriately supported to administer insulin safely after discharge from hospital.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is considering the Health Services Safety Investigations Body’s report and will respond to the recommendation in the report in due course.
To reduce insulin related harm, the NHS Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme published guidance in April 2025 to support trusts to establish Diabetes Safety Boards. GIRFT is also undertaking a pilot across 20 integrated care systems as part of a Community and District Nurse Insulin Programme, which works to empower community diabetes nurses and district nursing teams to support patients at home requiring insulin administration.
To further support services to provide high quality personalised care for all patients needing secondary mental health services, including those with diabetes, NHS England has shared new draft guidance with systems, the Mental Health Personalised Care Framework, sets out how services must effectively assess, plan, and manage people's care in collaboration with all relevant teams, including how they assess safety and risks of harm.
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 the report by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a mental health problem, published on 26 February, what assessment they have made of the risks to patient safety of inadequate assessment of a patient's ability to self-administer insulin prior to discharge from hospital
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is considering the Health Services Safety Investigations Body’s report and will respond to the recommendation in the report in due course.
To reduce insulin related harm, the NHS Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme published guidance in April 2025 to support trusts to establish Diabetes Safety Boards. GIRFT is also undertaking a pilot across 20 integrated care systems as part of a Community and District Nurse Insulin Programme, which works to empower community diabetes nurses and district nursing teams to support patients at home requiring insulin administration.
To further support services to provide high quality personalised care for all patients needing secondary mental health services, including those with diabetes, NHS England has shared new draft guidance with systems, the Mental Health Personalised Care Framework, sets out how services must effectively assess, plan, and manage people's care in collaboration with all relevant teams, including how they assess safety and risks of harm.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the NHS Health Check programme in identifying chronic kidney disease; and what steps they are taking to increase uptake of that programme.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Blood pressure is a risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Each year, the NHS Health Check, which is a core component of England’s CVD prevention programme, engages over 1.4 million people and identifies over 340,000 cases of high blood pressure.
Individuals who are identified with high blood pressure during their NHS Health Check are referred to their general practice for further clinical investigation who determine whether an individual should be tested for CKD. Data is currently not collected on the number of individuals who are subsequently tested for CKD.
To improve access and engagement with the NHS Health Check, we are developing the NHS Health Check Online service that people can use at home, at a time convenient to them, to understand and act on their CVD risk. The NHS Health Check Online is being piloted in multiple local authorities across England.
Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to assess the potential use of artificial intelligence benchmarking to reduce the side effects of radiotherapy when used to treat prostate cancer.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government remains committed to looking for opportunities to implement artificial intelligence (AI) in cancer services to speed up diagnosis, improve treatment efficacy, and reduce treatment side effects where possible. We have demonstrated this commitment through a £133 million investment in the AI in Health and Care Award, which has funded innovations relevant to prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment that align with the NHS Long Term Plan.
While AI is already being used to support diagnostic and treatment pathways, any future use of AI intended to further improve radiotherapy services, will be carefully evaluated to ensure safety, efficacy, and clinical benefit and benchmarked against existing standards and approaches.
The Government’s recently published National Cancer Plan sets out how we will modernise the National Health Service and utilise AI to support faster radiotherapy planning, provide more accurate contouring, improve productivity, and free up clinicians’ time to focus on patient care. Over the next decade, we will harness AI to help the NHS to deliver more personalised and responsive cancer care.