Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to ensure that implementation of the recommendations made in the Lord O’Shaughnessy review of commercial clinical trials in the UK takes into account the particular needs of (a) teenagers and (b) young adults with cancer.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government will publish a full response to the Lord O’Shaughnessy independent review into commercial clinical trials in autumn 2023. The response will include an update on progress and implementation of the initial five headline commitments and foundational actions that the Government made in May 2023.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
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 potential impact of the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access on (a) development of and (b) access to (i) Graft-versus-Host disease therapies, (ii) CAR-T therapies and (iii) other innovative therapies for rare conditions.
Answered by Will Quince
The voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access (VPAS) includes strong commercial incentives to launch new products in the form of freedom of list pricing and exemptions from payments for innovative medicines containing a new active substance. At the mid-scheme review for the 2019 VPAS, the Department and NHS England concluded that the scheme had been effective in supporting patient access to innovative medicines.
The terms of the successor to VPAS are subject to ongoing confidential negotiations. Supporting patient access to innovative medicines will continue to be one of the scheme’s objectives, alongside ensuring the affordability of National Health Service spend on medicines and supporting the life sciences sector and the wider economy.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure cooperation between NICE and the pharmaceutical industry to provide all stem cell transplant patients with adequate access to new Graft-versus-Host Disease treatments.
Answered by Will Quince
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service on the clinical and cost effectiveness of all new medicines and aims to publish guidance close to the point of licensing wherever possible. The NHS in England is legally required to make funding available for medicines in line with NICE’s recommendations. NICE works closely with pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders in the development of its recommendations on individual treatments.
NICE is developing technology appraisal guidance on belumosudil for treating chronic graft versus host disease after two or more lines of systemic therapy and expects to publish final guidance in November 2023.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment the Department has made of the potential merits of placing an obligation on superior landlords to not unreasonably refuse a request to keep a pet from a tenant through an immediate landlord.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Renters (Reform) Bill will ensure that private landlords cannot unreasonably refuse a request from their tenant to keep a pet. The Bill provides added flexibility where they need to obtain consent of a superior landlord when considering a request.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the right to request a pet under the Renters (Reform) Bill on people who live in leasehold properties.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Renters (Reform) Bill will ensure that private landlords cannot unreasonably refuse a request from their tenant to keep a pet. The Bill provides added flexibility where they need to obtain consent of a superior landlord when considering a request.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of not centrally funding pay rises for NHS staff employed by third parties on levels of staff retention.
Answered by Will Quince
No specific assessment has been made. Independent providers are free to develop and adapt their own terms and conditions of employment. This includes the pay scales that they use and any non-consolidated pay awards they choose to make. It is for them to determine what is affordable within the financial model they operate, and how to recoup any additional costs they face if they choose to utilise the terms and conditions of National Health Service staff on the Agenda for Change contract.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his Department's policy that healthcare staff on the Agenda for Change contract should receive the new pay settlement regardless if additional funding is provided.
Answered by Will Quince
All eligible staff should receive the payments agreed as part of the Agenda for Change deal. The pay offer to Agenda for Change staff, approved by a majority on the NHS Staff Council on 2 May, applied to staff directly employed by a National Health Service organisation as set out in Annex 1 of the NHS Employers handbook.
Staff employed at independent providers or other organisations who utilise the Agenda for Change terms and conditions may also be entitled to both the non-consolidated pay award for 2022/23 and the consolidated pay award for 2023/24 that staff working for eligible NHS organisations will receive. These organisations should consider their contractual obligations and review their commissioning contracts to consider whether and how to recover any additional cost pressures they now face. Funding to non-centrally funded organisations will be uplifted through their usual funding routes to reflect the 2023/24 pay award.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure the Major Conditions Strategy’s cancer section will include a specific focus on the unique care and support needs of teenagers and young people with cancer.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Major Conditions Strategy will take a life-course approach to tackling major conditions which will include ways to prevent ill-health from individuals' early years. We are taking an evidence-based approach to decide where and how interventions are made to achieve this and we are engaging with stakeholders representing children and young people to ensure their views are considered in the development of the strategy.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
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 potential merits of introducing advanced therapy medicinal products-specific experts on National Institute for Health and Care Excellence single technology appraisal committees for the evaluation of new innovative advanced therapies.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has made no assessment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is responsible for appointing members to its technology appraisal committees. Members reflect the spread of interests and expertise required for the business of the committee and are drawn from the National Health Service, patient and carer organisations, academia, and pharmaceutical and medical devices industries.
Additional experts may be invited to attend to advise the committee on a topic by topic basis to assist in considering and interpreting the evidence.
Asked by: Mark Tami (Labour - Alyn and Deeside)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support the commitment in NHS England’s Long-Term Plan to introduce (a) new cell and gene therapies and (b) other new treatment possibilities.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government would like all National Health Service patients in England to benefit from innovative and effective new treatments in a way that represents value to taxpayers. All new medicines, including cell and gene therapies, are appraised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) which makes recommendations for the NHS on whether they should be funded by the NHS, considering clinical and cost effectiveness. NICE aims to publish guidance on new medicines around the time of licensing wherever possible and the NHS is legally required to make funding available for NICE recommended treatments.
The NHS has struck commercial deals with the manufacturers of several cell and gene therapies enabling NICE to recommend them for NHS patients, including through the Government’s £340 million Cancer Drugs Fund. NHS patients in England were among the first in the world to benefit from access to CAR-T cancer therapy and, NHS England has also negotiated deals to secure lifesaving gene therapies Zolgensma® and Libmeldy® for patients with spinal muscular atrophy and metachromatic leukodystophy, respectively.