Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost of the recommended NHS pay awards.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Last year’s pay awards for NHS staff were among the biggest across the public sector. This year, we have announced above inflation, fully funded pay increases across all staff groups for a second year in a row. These thoroughly deserved pay rises demonstrate how this Government wants to work with staff in our shared ambition to rebuild the NHS. We have been able to fully fund these pay award thanks to the reforms we’ve made, including cuts to bureaucratic duplication and central running costs.Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many babies were born with conditions not picked up during screening tests in each of the last ten years for which data is available.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally. There is no specific field in the Maternity Services Dataset (MSDS) to capture screening results. Screening tests offered during pregnancy can be captured in MSDS via SNOMED codes, however information relating to screenings tests is not routinely collected or published. Therefore, data recorded in the MSDS via SNOMED codes is currently unlikely to cover screening test results, and mainly either describes whether the screening test was offered or took place, or whether it is entirely absent. Everyone who is eligible is invited to undertake antenatal screening during pregnancy. However, the offer relies on informed consent. Some parents may choose not to undertake screening tests. The current opt in rate is relatively high at around 70%.
No screening test is 100% accurate and they can have false positive and false negative results. In England, any laboratory undertaking screening tests as part of the National Health Service’s antenatal and newborn screening programmes is required to adhere to rigorous testing processes in line with individual screening programme handbooks and must also be accredited by the UK Accreditation Service to the International Organization for Standardization’s requirements for quality and competence in medical laboratories, ISO 15189:2022, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.iso.org/standard/76677.html
The UK National Screening Committee keeps all screening programmes under review. Work is ongoing to look at tests that could be included in antenatal screening programmes to increase detection or reduce the need for further invasive diagnostic tests.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
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 reduce the number of people with lower gastrointestinal cancers waiting beyond 62 days from urgent referral for their first definitive treatment.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will get the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, so more patients survive, including those with bowel cancer. As the first step to ensure faster diagnosis and treatment, the NHS is delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week.
Our reforms to cancer care will see more than 100,000 people, including those with bowel cancer, getting diagnosed faster, and thousands more starting treatment within two months. We have already hit our target of delivering two million extra operations, scans, and appointments seven months early.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with lower gastrointestinal cancers cancers, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately bringing this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve survival rates for bowel cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will get the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, so more patients survive, including those with bowel cancer. As the first step to ensure faster diagnosis and treatment, the NHS is delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week.
Our reforms to cancer care will see more than 100,000 people, including those with bowel cancer, getting diagnosed faster, and thousands more starting treatment within two months. We have already hit our target of delivering two million extra operations, scans, and appointments seven months early.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with lower gastrointestinal cancers cancers, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately bringing this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the US Executive Order entitled Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources, published on 24 April 2025, whether he is taking steps to advance a global moratorium on deep-sea mining as a member of the International Seabed Authority.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government notes the US Executive Order on 'Unleashing America's Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources'. The UK is a party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and is committed to the continued work of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to finalise the draft exploitation Regulations. The UK supports a moratorium on the granting of exploitation licences for deep sea mining by the ISA until there is sufficient scientific evidence to assess the potential impact of deep-sea mining on marine life, and until the ISA adopts robust, enforceable regulations. This is a matter for all member States to consider carefully, and the UK will continue to engage actively at the ISA Council and Assembly in July.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the allocated budget is for the smokefree pregnancy incentive scheme for the year 2025-26.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Smoke-free Pregnancy Incentives Scheme has a budget of £5.8 million for the financial year 2025/26, with future settlements being considered as part of the Spending Review process.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, If he will take steps to ensure the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment on biological sex in Government department workplaces.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
We welcome the ruling and the clarity it brings for women, and service providers.
We will review and update policy wherever necessary to ensure it complies with the latest legal requirements.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Propriety and Ethics Team has (a) carried out investigations into and (b) provided the Prime Minister with advice on (i) allegations of and (ii) the alleged involvement of Ministers in corruption in Bangladesh in the last 12 months.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Following a self-referral by the former Economic Secretary to the Treasury, the Hon Member for Hampstead and Highgate, the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards undertook a fact-finding process relating to recent media allegations about the former minister. Advice from the Independent Adviser was provided to the Prime Minister and published on gov.uk on 14 January 2025.
As has been the case under successive administrations, it is a long-standing principle that Civil Service advice is given and treated in confidence. This includes detailing whether or not advice has been given and by whom.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take legislative steps to introduce an immediate moratorium on import permits for hunting trophies of cheetahs.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The government committed to a ban on the import of hunting trophies of endangered animals in its manifesto and will deliver on this. Defra is currently engaging with a range of stakeholders in order to decide on the most effective approach.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that community-based ear wax removal services are made available to patients in (a) Harrow East constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) have a statutory responsibility to commission cost-effective healthcare to meet the needs of their local populations. This includes the arrangement of services for ear wax removal. When ICBs exercise their functions, including commissioning healthcare services such as ear wax removal, they have a duty to reduce inequalities between persons with respect to their ability to access health services, and to reduce inequalities between patients with respect to the outcomes achieved for them by the provision of health services.
Manual ear syringing is no longer advised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) due to the risks associated with it, such as trauma to their ear drum or infection, so general practitioners (GPs) will often recommend home treatment remedies to alleviate ear wax build-up.
However, in line with the NICE’s guidance, a person may require ear wax removal treatment if the build-up of earwax is linked with hearing loss. A GP could then consider referring the patient into audiology services, which ICBs are responsible for commissioning.