Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans make an assessment of the use of (a) fibrous forms of talc, (b) tremolite and (c) actinolite in products used by the NHS.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

From a medicines perspective, additives in medicines, termed excipients, are required to comply with the standards laid down in pharmacopeial monographs and can only be included in medicinal products at levels that are considered to be safe.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is aware of general concerns in relation to the presence of asbestos in talcum powder. However, pharmaceutical grade talc has strict controls on the presence of asbestos. The British Pharmacopeia monograph for Purified Talc states that “Talc derived from deposits that are known to contain associated asbestos is not suitable for pharmaceutical use”. Furthermore, testing is required to confirm the absence of asbestos.

NHS Supply Chain procurement activities require suppliers to comply with United Kingdom regulatory requirements such as the United Kingdom Accreditation Service or international equivalent accreditation for International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 and ISO 13485, to ensure that products procured under NHS Supply Chain frameworks and used within the National Health Service in England are subject to rigorous safety assessments.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act 2023 in protecting children in Northern Ireland.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Online Safety Act requires services to protect children in the UK from both illegal and age-inappropriate content. These protections are now in force, as of 25 July, children in Northern Ireland should be seeing a tangible difference in their online experiences.

Ofcom are already taking robust action against non-compliant services failing to fulfil their duties. Since the children’s safety duties have been in force, over 6,000 services have implemented highly effective age assurance to prevent children seeing the most harmful online content; improving protections for millions of children online.

We will continue to monitor the Act’s effectiveness and will not hesitate to take further action to protect children online if evidence shows this is necessary.

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 patients have timely access to innovative cancer medicines.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

In England, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness. The NHS is legally required to fund NICE recommended medicines, normally within three months of final guidance, and cancer medicines are eligible for funding from the point of a positive draft NICE recommendation. NICE aims wherever possible to issue guidance on new medicines close to the time of licensing to ensure that patients are able to benefit from rapid access to clinically and cost effective new medicines.

The Life Sciences Sector Plan sets out the measures we are taking that will mean that patients are able to access medicines three to six months faster, including improved alignment between the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s decisions and NICE guidance publication.

In England in 2024/25, 93% of NICE recommendations for cancer treatments were positive. Positive includes recommended, optimised, recommended in the cancer drugs fund (CDF), and optimised in the CDF.

Health is a devolved matter and as such it would not be appropriate for me to comment on access to medicines within the devolved administrations.

150th anniversary of Laurelvale Cricket Club

Tackling antisemitism and hatred

Acquittal of Shaun O’Sullivan, free speech and religious freedom

Wrightbus CEO

Treatment of the Darlington nurses

Irish Sea herring quotas

Houses of Parliament Shop deliveries to Northern Ireland

Welfare benefits for foreign nationals

Anniversary of the murder of Ken Smyth and Daniel McCormick

Found: govuk-table__cell">2025-07-10

Found: Heritage Museum ahead of the Twelfth celebrations Hilary Benn 2025-07-10 Loughgall Victims w/ Carla Lockhart