Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 29 September (HL10314), when the Department for Transport's scrutiny period of the governance processes in regards to Hammersmith Bridge will conclude; and when they will announce a timeline for the re-opening of Hammersmith Bridge to traffic.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for Transport and Transport for London (TfL) are working closely with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF) to ensure that an effective business case is submitted for the necessary strengthening works on Hammersmith Bridge. Once submitted, the final business case will be robustly scrutinised by my Department and by TfL to protect the national taxpayer’s interests and ensure that projects with strong business cases receive Government support. Given the thorough nature of this process, I cannot yet give a specific date for completion.
As the asset owner, the responsibility for the required repair works lies with LBHF. As such, my Department cannot make any decisions or give estimates on the expected date for the re-opening of Hammersmith Bridge to traffic.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 13 September (HL9790), when they expect the business case development process to report.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for Transport continues to work constructively with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham – the asset owner and lead for the Hammersmith Bridge project – and with Transport for London to make progress on the Outline Business Case. This is currently undergoing scrutiny through the Department’s governance processes. LBHF is being kept appraised of developments, and a report will be issued once the governance processes have been fulfilled.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people died of mesothelioma in each of the five years up to December 2022.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Baroness Hodgson of Abinger CBE
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
08 September 2023
Dear Lady Hodgson,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people died of mesothelioma in each of the five years up to December 2022 (HL9787).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing statistics on deaths registered in England and Wales [1]. Information for Scotland [2] and Northern Ireland [3] is available from National Records of Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency respectively.
Causes mentioned on the death certificate are converted to International Classification of Diseases 10th edition (ICD-10) codes, with the underlying cause of death defined as the disease or injury that initiated the events that directly lead to the death. The ICD-10 code for mesothelioma is C45, which comes under Chapter 2: Neoplasms [4].
Table 1 provides a breakdown of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales in each year between 2017 and 2022 where the underlying cause of death was mesothelioma. Age-standardised mortality rates have been provided to allow comparisons between populations which may contain different proportions of people of different ages.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Table 1: Number of deaths and age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs) due to mesothelioma in England and Wales, registered 2017 to 2022 [5][6][7][8][9]
Year | Number of deaths | ASMRs |
2017 | 2,279 | 4.2 |
2018 | 2,143 | 3.8 |
2019 | 2,174 | 3.8 |
2020 | 2,231 | 3.9 |
2021 | 1,941 | 3.3 |
2022 | 1,926 | 3.2 |
Source: Office for National Statistics
[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/
[2] https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths
[3] https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/births-deaths-and-marriages/deaths
[4] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/methodologies/userguidetomortalitystatisticsjuly2017
[5] Figures are for deaths registered, rather than deaths occurring in each period.
[6] Figures include the deaths of usual residents of England and Wales as well as those of nonresidents.
[7] Based on deaths where mesothelioma (ICD-10 code C45) was the underlying cause of death.
[8] Age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 people, standardised to the 2013 European Standard Population.
[9] Number of deaths and age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs) due to mesothelioma can be provided at a lower geographic area such as region upon request.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are funding research into finding a cure for mesothelioma.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Research is crucial in the fight against cancer. That is why the Department invests £1 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was over £101 million for 2021/22.
NIHR funded the following research programmes, totalling approximately £3 million, since 2018:
- A double blind, placebo-controlled, randomized phase II study of Pemetrexed and Cisplatin with and without Ruxolitinib in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma;
- Mesothelioma and Radical Surgery 2: a multicentre randomised trial comparing (extended) pleurectomy decortication versus no (extended) pleurectomy decortication for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MARS 2);
- Nivolumab with ipilimumab for untreated unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma [ID1609];
- Treating mesothelioma with Intra-pleural Lipoteichoic acid (the TILT Trial): A feasibility study using the ‘Trial within a Cohort’ methodology;
- Developing a short-term integrated rehabilitation service for people with newly diagnosed thoracic cancer;
- Randomised controlled trial to compare the diagnostic yield of Positron Emission Tomography Computerised Tomography (PET-CT) guided pleural biopsy versus CT-guided pleural biopsy in suspected pleural malignancy (PET-biopsy trial);
- Zoledronic acid in the management of malignant pleural mesothelioma - a feasibility study (Zol-A Study); and
- MesoTRAP: A feasibility study comparing video-assisted thoracoscopic partial pleurectomy/decortication with indwelling pleural catheter in patients with trapped lung and pleural effusion due to malignant pleural mesothelioma designed to address recruitment and randomisation uncertainties and sample size requirements for a phase III trial.
The NIHR is also supporting delivery in the health and care system of over 50 mesothelioma research studies funded by research funding partners in the charity and public sectors since 2018.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including research into mesothelioma. As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect Hammersmith Bridge to reopen to traffic.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Transport in London is devolved. Hammersmith Bridge is owned by the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF) which is responsible for its repair and maintenance.
Stabilisation works are underway; a business case for strengthening works is in development. Providing a schedule for the full reopening of the bridge is part of the business case development process.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what were the survival rates for people diagnosed of mesothelioma in each of the five years up to December 2022.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The latest mesothelioma cancer survival statistics available are for those adults diagnosed between 2016-2020, followed up to 2021.
The table below provides the year of cancer diagnosis, the years since diagnosis (from 1 to 5), and the respective survival rates, with associated 95% upper and lower confidence intervals (CIs). Where estimates are not possible due to low reliability, a [u] is shown.
Year of diagnosis | Years since diagnosis | Net survival (%) | Net survival, lower 95% CI | Net survival, upper 95% CI |
2016-2020 | 1 | 46.0 | 44.7 | 47.4 |
2015-2019 | 1 | 46.0 | 44.8 | 47.3 |
2014-2018 | 1 | 45.3 | 44.0 | 46.7 |
2013-2017 | 1 | 44.7 | 43.5 | 46.0 |
2012-2016 | 1 | 44.5 | 43.2 | 45.7 |
2016-2020 | 2 | 24.1 | 23.0 | 25.2 |
2015-2019 | 2 | 23.6 | 22.5 | 24.7 |
2014-2018 | 2 | 23.1 | 22.0 | 24.1 |
2013-2017 | 2 | 21.7 | 20.7 | 22.8 |
2012-2016 | 2 | 21.4 | 20.4 | 22.4 |
2016-2020 | 3 | 14.7 | 13.8 | 15.7 |
2015-2019 | 3 | 14.3 | 13.4 | 15.2 |
2014-2018 | 3 | 13.8 | 12.9 | 14.7 |
2013-2017 | 3 | 12.8 | 12.0 | 13.7 |
2012-2016 | 3 | 12.2 | 11.4 | 13.1 |
2016-2020 | 4 | 10.0 | 9.1 | 10.9 |
2015-2019 | 4 | 9.6 | 8.7 | 10.5 |
2014-2018 | 4 | 9.4 | 8.6 | 10.3 |
2013-2017 | 4 | 8.3 | 7.4 | 9.2 |
2012-2016 | 4 | 7.6 | 6.8 | 8.5 |
2016-2020 | 5 | [u] | [u] | [u] |
2015-2019 | 5 | 7.1 | 6.2 | 8 |
2014-2018 | 5 | 7.1 | 6.3 | 8.1 |
2013-2017 | 5 | 6.6 | 5.8 | 7.6 |
2012-2016 | 5 | [u] | [u] | [u] |
This information is provided as survival estimates in rolling five-year periods because there are insufficient diagnoses of mesothelioma to provide estimates by a single year of diagnosis. This is because of the statistical frameworks used in the estimation of survival analysis which require minimum numbers of patients to be alive at each estimation point and for a minimum number to have died around the same time to reliably estimate the mortality rates of the cancer cohort. For cancers like mesothelioma, the number of patients remaining alive quickly falls to a number that no longer permits the estimation of survival beyond 5-years after diagnosis, shown as [u] in the table to detonate low reliability.
Furthermore, all estimates of survival vary with time from diagnosis. We have provided estimates at one, two, three, four and five years after diagnosis for five periods of diagnosis: 2012-2016 to 2016-2020, which is the most recent available.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they are supporting women’s groups and women human rights defenders in Yemen.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Yemen is a focus country in the new HMG national action plan on Women, Peace, and Security for 2023-27 and is one of our human rights priority countries.
We champion and support the important role women, youth and civil society can play in securing lasting peace in Yemen, recognising the need for an inclusive peace process and consideration for marginalised groups.
As a global leader on the Women Peace, and Security agenda, the UK funds projects supporting the work of grassroots women leaders and civil society organisations in communities across Yemen. For example, we supported the Yemeni Women's Pact for Peace and Security (through UN Women), which aimed to increase female leadership and inclusion in the peace processes.
We continue to support the UN Special Envoy, who is actively engaging women in the peace process and involving a wide range of Yemenis. We fund a Senior Gender Adviser position and an Economist position in his office. Complementing the UN's efforts to deliver a durable and sustainable peace deal, the UK's Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) has supported a range of Track II (Influential Figures) and Track III (Civil Society and Local Groups) initiatives which promote a more inclusive political dialogue, including at the subnational level.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support they are providing, and what practical steps they are are taking, to ensure civil society, including women's rights organisations, women’s human rights defenders and youth organisations, are involved in Yemen's peace process.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Yemen is a focus country in the new HMG national action plan on Women, Peace, and Security for 2023-27 and is one of our human rights priority countries.
We champion and support the important role women, youth and civil society can play in securing lasting peace in Yemen, recognising the need for an inclusive peace process and consideration for marginalised groups.
As a global leader on the Women Peace, and Security agenda, the UK funds projects supporting the work of grassroots women leaders and civil society organisations in communities across Yemen. For example, we supported the Yemeni Women's Pact for Peace and Security (through UN Women), which aimed to increase female leadership and inclusion in the peace processes.
We continue to support the UN Special Envoy, who is actively engaging women in the peace process and involving a wide range of Yemenis. We fund a Senior Gender Adviser position and an Economist position in his office. Complementing the UN's efforts to deliver a durable and sustainable peace deal, the UK's Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) has supported a range of Track II (Influential Figures) and Track III (Civil Society and Local Groups) initiatives which promote a more inclusive political dialogue, including at the subnational level.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of churches being destroyed through violence in Manipur in India; and what support, if any, they are offering to the Christian community there.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our network in India continues to follow closely reports of violence, including vandalism of places of worship, in Manipur state. The UK Government has a broad and deep partnership with the Government of India, and we discuss all elements of our relationship. I [Lord (Tariq) Ahmad] raised the current situation in Manipur with the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, during my visit to India in May. The British High Commissioner to India and our Deputy High Commissioner for East and Northeast India have met with numerous communities over the last year, including visiting both Christian and Hindu places of worship.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the threat to Commonwealth Graves in Manipur in India as a result of the current violence there; and what steps, if any, they are taking to protect them.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission are responsible for those sites overseas where World War casualties are interred and commemorated. The Commission are well apprised of both the security and general situation in the countries where they operate around the world, including India, and in monitoring the position the Commission maintain regular contact with the relevant in-country UK Embassy staffs.