Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to (a) improve childhood cancer diagnosis times and (b) raise awareness of child cancer symptoms through dedicated resources for both GPs and parents.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence provides guidance for general practitioners (GPs) on the symptoms of cancer in children. The Royal College of General Practitioners sets the training curriculum for GPs which states that in order to demonstrate the core competences in the care of children and young people, GPs should be aware of the early presenting symptoms of childhood cancers. Children’s cancer services are contained in 14 specialist principal treatment centres. A child with suspected cancer should be referred directly to a centre, which will make the diagnosis and direct the provision of treatment.
There are no specific plans to raise awareness of childhood cancer symptoms through dedicated resources for parents.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps are being taken to encourage more cancer patients to donate tissue to assist with research into childhood cancers.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has launched the online ‘Be Part of Research’ which enables individuals to search research studies currently recruiting participants in the United Kingdom, which is available at the following link:
www.bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk
Users may search based on health conditions, age range and location and access further detail, such as eligibility and participation criteria, which may include tissue donation.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to support research to investigate the long-term effects of treatment on childhood cancer survivors so that they can be supported better later in life.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In 2020/21, the NIHR’s expenditure on cancer research was £73.5 million. The NIHR is currently funding 15 research projects into the treatment of childhood cancer survivors, with committed expenditure of approximately £11.7 million since April 2017.
The NIHR is also supporting the delivery of research funded by partners in the charity and public sectors into the treatment of childhood cancers. Since April 2017, the NIHR Clinical Research Network has supported seven related studies. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including childhood cancer. Applications submitted to are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many sudden infant deaths occurred in the UK in each of the last three years.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The sudden unexpected death of a baby, when there is no apparent cause of death, is known as sudden unexpected death in infancy. This includes sudden infant death syndrome and fatal sleep accidents.
Statistics on sudden infant deaths for England and Wales are reported by the Office for National Statistics with separate publications by the National Records of Scotland and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. The following table shows the most recent data available in each year since 2018.
| England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland |
2021 | Not yet available | 15 | Not yet available |
2020 | 78 (provisional) | 13 | 2 |
2019 | 103 | 23 | 3 |
2018 | 114 | 28 | 0 |
Note:
Data for England and Wales in 2020 data is provisional due to registration delays during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finalised data will be published in 2023.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department have taken steps to commission research on the potential impact of air pollution on developing lungs and brains during pregnancy.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has over £13 million allocated to active research into air pollution. The NIHR supports a range of research on the effects of air quality on health, including the relationship between exposure to air pollutants and adverse birth outcomes in England, Scotland and Wales. This is primarily undertaken through the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health at Imperial College London, with the UK Health Security Agency.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to raise young people's awareness of the risks of vaping.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
To raise awareness of the risks of vaping to children, we have updated information and advice online at the Better Health and Talk to Frank platforms. The Department of Health and Social Care also works with the Department of Education on communications to schools to prevent children from starting vaping.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many first-time blood donors gave blood in each of the last three years.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The following table shows the number of new blood donors in England from 1 November to 31 October in each year since 2019.
1 November 2019 to 31 October 2020 | 100,812 |
1 November 2020 to 31 October 2021 | 133,486 |
1 November 2021 to 31 October 2022 | 111,004 |
Source: NHS Blood and Transplant, November 2022.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people donated blood in each of the last three years.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The following table shows the number of active blood donors in England from 1 November to 31 October in each year from 2019.
Year | Number of donors |
1 November 2019 to 31 October 2020 | 764,966 |
1 November 2020 to 31 October 2021 | 789,943 |
1 November 2021 to 31 October 2022 | 797,263 |
Source: NHS Blood and Transplant, November 2022.
Note:
An active donor is an individual who has donated blood at least once in a 12 month period.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has to help improve access to radiotherapy for patients waiting for cancer treatment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2016, NHS England has invested over £160 million in radiotherapy equipment which has replaced or upgraded approximately 100 linear accelerators and ensuring local access to advanced radiotherapy techniques and treatments, such as Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her plans are to reduce waiting times for cancer treatment.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund already made available in 2021/2022 to increase elective activity, including cancer services.
The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how the National Health Service will reduce the number of people waiting more than 62 days to start treatment following an urgent referred for suspected cancer to pre-pandemic levels by March 2023. We have established 88 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) to support patients to receive an earlier diagnostic test closer to home, including for cancer. We will prioritise the delivery of up to 160 CDCs to provide approximately 17 million tests by March 2025, with capacity for an additional nine million per year once fully operational.