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 whether they will appoint a national clinical director to oversee the commissioning of wheelchair services for the NHS and social care services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to appoint a national clinical director to oversee the commissioning of wheelchair services for the National Health Service and social care services. Oversight of wheelchair services within the NHS and social care is provided by national bodies, that monitor different aspects of the market, and by local authorities.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchairs services, based on the needs of their local population. We expect local commissioning to be informed by the best available evidence, including guidance issued by NHS England.
NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services. This includes taking steps to support ICBs and wheelchair providers to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs, and to support ICBs to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment. On 9 April 2025, NHS England published a Wheelchair Quality Framework which sets out quality standards relevant to all suppliers regardless of Care Quality Commission registration status, as well as statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the NHS.UK website.
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 action they are taking to minimise inequality across different wheelchair services provided by the NHS and social care bodies, and to ensure consistent delivery of a good quality service.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchairs services, based on the needs of their local population, including the offer of a personal health budget to enable a choice of wheelchair.
There are a range of providers of National Health Service wheelchair services across England. ICBs are responsible for monitoring service provision and effectively managing contracts with their commissioned providers. We expect local commissioning to be informed by the best available evidence, including guidance issued by NHS England.
NHS England is taking steps support ICBs and wheelchair providers to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs, and to support ICBs to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment. This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out quality standards relevant to all suppliers regardless of Care Quality Commission registration status, as well as statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the NHS.UK website, in an online only format.
The Wheelchair Quality Framework aligns with the Care Quality Commission’s assessment framework and supports the aims of integrated care systems to improve outcomes in population health and health care, and to tackle inequalities in outcomes, experiences, and access. The Care Quality Commission Assessment framework is available on the Care Quality Commission’s website, in an online only format.
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 sufficiency of expertise of NHS and social care services to commission wheelchair services and ensure a high-quality provision for users.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Oversight of wheelchair services within the National Health Service and social care is provided by national bodies, which monitor different aspects of the market, and by local authorities.
NHS England supports the integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services. This includes taking steps support ICBs and wheelchair providers to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs. NHS England published a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out the quality standards relevant to all suppliers regardless of Care Quality Commission registration status, and statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available on the NHS.UK website, in an online only format.
The Government has put in place a range of initiatives to help NHS bodies make informed choices about the products and the route through which they are bought. These include the NHS Supply Chain, a national body which is responsible for procuring and delivering the majority of equipment into the NHS. The NHS Supply Chain was set up to leverage the collective buying power of the NHS, to drive savings and provide a standardised range of clinically assured quality products at the best value.
ICBs are responsible for commissioning wheelchair services, based on the need of their local population, and for having sufficient expertise to commission high quality services. ICBs will assess the market when securing local provision. This includes monitoring service provision and effectively managing contracts with their commissioned providers.
Local authorities are responsible for providing equipment that supports daily living and independence. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market and to commission a range of high-quality, sustainable, and person-centred care and support services to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes encouraging a wide range of service provision to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate services and equipment that maximise independence and put the wellbeing of the people who draw on care at the centre of decisions.
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 competitiveness of the market for the supply of wheelchairs to the NHS and social care services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Oversight of wheelchair services within the National Health Service and social care is provided by national bodies, which monitor different aspects of the market, and by local authorities.
NHS England supports the integrated care boards (ICBs) to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services. This includes taking steps support ICBs and wheelchair providers to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs. NHS England published a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025, which sets out the quality standards relevant to all suppliers regardless of Care Quality Commission registration status, and statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available on the NHS.UK website, in an online only format.
The Government has put in place a range of initiatives to help NHS bodies make informed choices about the products and the route through which they are bought. These include the NHS Supply Chain, a national body which is responsible for procuring and delivering the majority of equipment into the NHS. The NHS Supply Chain was set up to leverage the collective buying power of the NHS, to drive savings and provide a standardised range of clinically assured quality products at the best value.
ICBs are responsible for commissioning wheelchair services, based on the need of their local population, and for having sufficient expertise to commission high quality services. ICBs will assess the market when securing local provision. This includes monitoring service provision and effectively managing contracts with their commissioned providers.
Local authorities are responsible for providing equipment that supports daily living and independence. Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market and to commission a range of high-quality, sustainable, and person-centred care and support services to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes encouraging a wide range of service provision to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate services and equipment that maximise independence and put the wellbeing of the people who draw on care at the centre of decisions.
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 action they have taken to incentivise investment and reduce barriers in brain cancer research for the pharmaceutical and life science sector in the areas of (1) transitional research, (2) early stage research, (3) advanced novel therapeutics, (4) optimisation of existing treatments, and (5) repurposing drug trials.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering brain cancer research is shared between the Department for Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The Medical Research Council (MRC) funds fundamental discovery science through to the development and testing of new diagnostics, therapeutic interventions, and preventive measures whilst the NIHR funds applied health and care research that turns discoveries into new or improved treatments, diagnostics, medical technologies, or services.
To bridge the gap between early findings and clinical practice, the NIHR supports translational research focused on patient-centred research and healthcare. NIHR Biomedical Research Centres take leading-edge cancer research from the laboratory and rapidly translate it into clinical trials. The NIHR Innovation Observatory scans for new opportunities to identify emerging interventions or those with the potential for repurposing.
In September 2024, the NIHR announced a new approach to transform the outcomes for patients and their families who are living with brain tumours, ultimately reducing the lives lost to cancer. This will be done by maximising the United Kingdom’s clinical trials potential and working with the life sciences sector to make the UK a leading location for brain tumour research.
The UKRI offers a broad range of funding opportunities to support brain tumour research, including in partnership with industry. The MRC has actively engaged with brain tumour researchers to encourage applications The MRC has also identified the need for better disease models which informed a recent MRC-led funding opportunity to improve human in vitro models, and which resulted in two awards that will explore improving the use of human brain tumour tissue in research.
The Government is committed to furthering our investment and support for high-quality brain tumour research, ensuring that funding is used in the most meaningful and impactful way, and the NIHR continues to welcome further high-quality proposals from researchers to inform approaches to prevention, treatment, and care in relation to brain cancer.
The Department of Health and Social Care is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with brain cancer, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments. The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the National Health Service will improve diagnosis and outcomes for all cancer patients in England, including for those with brain cancer.
The Government also supports the Rare Cancers Private Members Bill. The bill will make it easier for clinical trials on brain cancer to take place in England, by ensuring the patient population can be more easily contacted by researchers.
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 whether they plan to adopt the guidelines issued by the British Neuro-Oncology Society in August 2023, Guideline for Tissue Sampling of Brain Tumours, to address the variability in access to genetic testing of brain tumours.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has produced national sample handling guidance for the whole genome sequencing (WGS) of solid tumours, including brain tumours, to standardise collection, processing, and transport. This guidance supports collaboration between neurosurgeons, pathologists, and Genomic Laboratory Hubs to maintain DNA quality and improve access to WGS. Approaches to the handling of fresh tissue have been reviewed, including the use of tissue stabilisers, to reduce some of the barriers of having to acquire, freeze, and transport the frozen tissue, which in turn will speed up processes. These measures aim to address variability and ensure equitable regional access to WGS for brain tumour patients.
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 action has been taken by the NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad to ensure that work on personalised vaccines in cancer treatment will benefit patients with brain cancer.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP) is a platform that aims to accelerate the development of cancer vaccines and speed up cancer patient access to mRNA personalised cancer vaccine clinical trials. The CVLP has played a key role in accelerating trial activity in cancer research, with CVLP sites driving faster site activation and enrolment timelines. The platform is company- and clinical trial- agnostic. The CVLP would encourage any company that wishes to deliver trials via the platform, including those developing personalised cancer vaccines for brain tumours, to get in contact to explore how the platform can support their research.
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 whether they will require NHS and social care services to ensure that power-assisted wheelchairs and power add-on devices are available to wheelchair users.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchairs services, based on the needs of their local population, and NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services. Any equipment provided will be agreed following a clinical assessment and based on the needs identified.
NHS England is taking steps to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of National Health Service wheelchairs, including any specialist electric wheelchair provision, and to support ICBs to reduce delays in people receiving timely intervention and wheelchair equipment. These include: establishing a national wheelchair data set which looks at waiting times across the pathway to enable targeted action if improvement is required; publishing a wheelchair quality framework which sets out quality standards relevant to all suppliers; and the introduction of personal wheelchair budgets to give people greater choice in the selection of manual and electric wheelchairs.
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 steps they are taking to support and roll out whole genome sequencing, and to ensure regional equity of access to that technology.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Genomic testing in the National Health Service in England is delivered through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service (GMS) via seven regional Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). All seven GLHs deliver testing based on the National Genomic Test Directory, which outlines eligibility criteria for genomic testing, including whole genome sequencing. NHS England monitors testing activity and performance through Patient Level Contract Monitoring data across all seven GLHs, enabling NHS England to identify variation and work with the GLHs to implement improvements. Seven NHS GMS Alliances also work to embed genomics into clinical pathways, raise awareness among clinicians and the public, and ensure equitable access to whole genome sequencing across all regions.
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 whether they will require NHS and social care bodies to adopt the NHS England wheelchair quality framework and the model service specification for wheelchair and posture services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has no plans to mandate the framework for National Health Services. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchairs services, based on the needs of their local population. We expect local commissioning to be informed by the best available evidence, including guidance issued by NHS England.
NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services. On 9 April 2025, NHS England published a Wheelchair Quality Framework which sets out quality standards relevant to all suppliers regardless of Care Quality Commission registration status, as well as statutory requirements for ICBs. The framework is available at the NHS.UK website, in an online only format.