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 whether women diagnosed with cancer in prisons in England receive healthcare equivalent in quality, timeliness and continuity as that provided in the community.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions all services across the prison estate to be equivalent with those expected to be received in the community, including for cancer care.
All people received into prison have an initial health screen on arrival into prison. This assessment focuses on initial risks and key medicines required and any referrals to other services for immediate assessment. Any concerns regarding failures in cancer care for people in prison should be escalated by prison healthcare to the local National Health Service Health and Justice Commissioner.
NHS England expects all providers and healthcare professionals providing any NHS funded or commissioned service to have appropriate and relevant qualifications and work within the scope of their professional registration, including clinicians working to treat people in prison. Any women with a cancer diagnosis who require secondary or tertiary care should have access to these services as they would if they were in the community.
More information regarding assessments in relation to women diagnosed with cancer in prison can be found in the report, The health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate in England, published in November 2025 by Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer. A copy of this report is attached.
Through the National Cancer Plan, published on 4 February 2026, we are committed to supporting all people living with or recovering from cancer.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage patients with a learning disability to apply to be on their GP's learning disability register.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Being on a general practice’s (GP) learning disability register is crucial to ensuring that people receive the right support at the right time, including access to annual health checks. Our approach focuses both on encouraging eligible patients to join the register and on supporting GPs to identify and register people with a learning disability.
Work is currently underway to increase uptake, including encouraging children and young people to join the learning disability register at 14 years old, and to support people who do not have a confirmed learning disability diagnosis to access the register and appropriate services.
NHS England monitors uptake of the learning disability register and publishes data routinely. Information on the number of people on GP learning disability registers is in the table attached.
NHS England is also working with people with lived experience, clinical professionals, and commissioners to produce guidance on improving identification of learning disability and developing a quality framework setting expectations for annual health checks and health action plans. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, wrote to all GPs in October 2025, emphasising the importance of the learning disability register and the need to deliver high-quality annual health checks.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to make GPs aware of the learning disability register.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Being on a general practice’s (GP) learning disability register is crucial to ensuring that people receive the right support at the right time, including access to annual health checks. Our approach focuses both on encouraging eligible patients to join the register and on supporting GPs to identify and register people with a learning disability.
Work is currently underway to increase uptake, including encouraging children and young people to join the learning disability register at 14 years old, and to support people who do not have a confirmed learning disability diagnosis to access the register and appropriate services.
NHS England monitors uptake of the learning disability register and publishes data routinely. Information on the number of people on GP learning disability registers is in the table attached.
NHS England is also working with people with lived experience, clinical professionals, and commissioners to produce guidance on improving identification of learning disability and developing a quality framework setting expectations for annual health checks and health action plans. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, wrote to all GPs in October 2025, emphasising the importance of the learning disability register and the need to deliver high-quality annual health checks.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to address any failures in cancer care arising from fragmented commissioning arrangements between NHS England, health and wellbeing boards and prison healthcare providers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions all services across the prison estate to be equivalent with those expected to be received in the community, including for cancer care.
All people received into prison have an initial health screen on arrival into prison. This assessment focuses on initial risks and key medicines required and any referrals to other services for immediate assessment. Any concerns regarding failures in cancer care for people in prison should be escalated by prison healthcare to the local National Health Service Health and Justice Commissioner.
NHS England expects all providers and healthcare professionals providing any NHS funded or commissioned service to have appropriate and relevant qualifications and work within the scope of their professional registration, including clinicians working to treat people in prison. Any women with a cancer diagnosis who require secondary or tertiary care should have access to these services as they would if they were in the community.
More information regarding assessments in relation to women diagnosed with cancer in prison can be found in the report, The health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate in England, published in November 2025 by Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer. A copy of this report is attached.
Through the National Cancer Plan, published on 4 February 2026, we are committed to supporting all people living with or recovering from cancer.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that women in prison with cancer (1) are treated by appropriately qualified clinicians, and (2) have consistent access to oncology specialists.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions all services across the prison estate to be equivalent with those expected to be received in the community, including for cancer care.
All people received into prison have an initial health screen on arrival into prison. This assessment focuses on initial risks and key medicines required and any referrals to other services for immediate assessment. Any concerns regarding failures in cancer care for people in prison should be escalated by prison healthcare to the local National Health Service Health and Justice Commissioner.
NHS England expects all providers and healthcare professionals providing any NHS funded or commissioned service to have appropriate and relevant qualifications and work within the scope of their professional registration, including clinicians working to treat people in prison. Any women with a cancer diagnosis who require secondary or tertiary care should have access to these services as they would if they were in the community.
More information regarding assessments in relation to women diagnosed with cancer in prison can be found in the report, The health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate in England, published in November 2025 by Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer. A copy of this report is attached.
Through the National Cancer Plan, published on 4 February 2026, we are committed to supporting all people living with or recovering from cancer.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent disruption of cancer treatment for patients following imprisonment.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissions all services across the prison estate to be equivalent with those expected to be received in the community, including for cancer care.
All people received into prison have an initial health screen on arrival into prison. This assessment focuses on initial risks and key medicines required and any referrals to other services for immediate assessment. Any concerns regarding failures in cancer care for people in prison should be escalated by prison healthcare to the local National Health Service Health and Justice Commissioner.
NHS England expects all providers and healthcare professionals providing any NHS funded or commissioned service to have appropriate and relevant qualifications and work within the scope of their professional registration, including clinicians working to treat people in prison. Any women with a cancer diagnosis who require secondary or tertiary care should have access to these services as they would if they were in the community.
More information regarding assessments in relation to women diagnosed with cancer in prison can be found in the report, The health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate in England, published in November 2025 by Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer. A copy of this report is attached.
Through the National Cancer Plan, published on 4 February 2026, we are committed to supporting all people living with or recovering from cancer.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce an implementation and accountability plan to monitor progress towards the delivery of 500,000 operations supported by robotics each year by 2035.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our 10-Year Health Plan commits to expanding robotic assisted surgery (RAS) adoption over the next decade. We will establish national registries for robotic surgery data from 2029 and telesurgery networks to support geographical equity of access of RAS. The national robotic surgery registry will support evidence generation, and will enable future reporting and decision making. Last year, NHS England published the first national guidance for the implementation of RAS in the National Health Service, offering guidance on procurement, commissioning, implementation, training, and evaluation.
A national steering committee, with representation from across the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, the Office for Life Sciences, NHS Supply Chain, and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, is already in place to support the RAS programme to deliver Government commitments. This will help to set the pace and scale in relation to targets of RAS numbers. Decisions to offer RAS are agreed at an integrated care board and trust level, in line with local population need.
The Department and NHS England are working closely with NHS trusts and regions to understand the key barriers and facilitators to adoption. The RAS steering committee is working together to identify provider trusts and regional alliances that are planning further expansion of RAS.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to engage with mutually run healthcare providers to understand the barriers they face in growing their services and supporting the National Health Service and patients with quicker access to healthcare.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan envisages a new plurality of provision of healthcare services where integrated care boards (ICBs) engage and actively develop a provider landscape that encourages innovation and new forms of ventures.
During 2026/27, a Strategic Commissioning Development Programme will provide practical support to ICBs to help them hone their commissioning, market development, and analytical skills and understand the levers available to commission sustainable neighbourhood health services which reflect the value and potential of mutual ventures and voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise organisations in transforming how services are delivered.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the Innovative Medicines Fund budget was spent in each of past two financial years as (1) total spend, and (2) a percentage of the overall budget.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Innovative Medicines Fund (IMF), established in June 2022, provides time‑limited access to innovative non‑cancer medicines while further evidence is generated to address uncertainties identified by the NICE appraisal committee. Following a managed access period of up to five years, NICE reviews the updated evidence to determine whether the medicine should be routinely commissioned by the NHS.
NHS England spent £2 million on drugs funded through the IMF in both 2023/24 and 2024/25. This is 0.6% of the £340 million allocated to the IMF.
In the 2025/26 financial year to date, IMF expenditure has been £18 million, 5.3% of allocated funds. Any underspend on medicines funded through the IMF is diverted to other specialised services.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the process for the selection and prioritisation of NICE Health Technology Assessment Innovation Laboratory projects.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) Health Technology Assessment Innovation Laboratory (HTA Lab) receives suggestions for exploratory projects from NICE guidance-producing teams and external stakeholders.
Proposed topics are considered by the HTA Lab steering group, which comprises senior representatives from NICE’s guidance-producing functions and the All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre.
Where a proposal falls within the HTA Lab’s remit, primarily complex issues relating to the evaluation of medicines, it is assessed for alignment with existing work, key HTA challenges, and the potential to deliver meaningful outputs within a reasonable timeframe.
Proposals recommended for full HTA Lab projects are submitted to a NICE programme board for executive-level consideration alongside wider organisational and system priorities, and for approval or rejection.