Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the level of NHS funding for brain tumour research compared to research into other cancers; and if she will provide the quantum of NHS research funding into brain tumours for each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests over £1 billion per year into health research, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), whose research spending for all cancers was £121.8 million in 2022/23. Funding for the delivery of brain cancer studies in the National Health Service cannot be disaggregated from other studies, but to indicate scale, in 2022/23 the NIHR Clinical Research Network supported 61 brain cancer studies and recruited 4,317 participants to these studies.
Over the past five financial years, the NIHR has spent over £11.3 million in funding for brain cancer research. The following table shows the amount of funding awarded for brain cancer research, from 2018/19 to 2022/23:
Financial Year | Funding amount |
2018/19 | £2.9 million |
2019/20 | £150,000 |
2020/21 | £2.2 million |
2021/22 | £5.3 million |
2022/23 | £750,000 |
Total | £11.3 million |
Note: the amount of funding awarded will differ to actual spend in a given year, as total spending will include that of multi-year awards made in previous years.
The NIHR funds research in response to proposals received from scientists, rather than allocating funding to specific disease areas. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
To increase the quality, diversity, and number of brain cancer research proposals, the NIHR is working with the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission and the research community, to develop research capacity in the brain cancer community.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy in negotiations on a pandemic preparedness treaty that responsibility for the (a) planning and (b) implementation of future pandemic responses will rest with the UK Government and not the World Health Organisation.
Answered by Will Quince
The United Kingdom has been clear that we will not sign up to a pandemic instrument that would compromise the UK’s ability to make domestic decisions on national measures concerning public health policy. Protecting states’ sovereign rights to determine and manage their approaches to public health is a guiding principle for negotiators of the pandemic instrument.
The UK continues to negotiate the text of the pandemic instrument to ensure it delivers on our priorities. Once the instrument is agreed and adopted by World Health Organization Member States, the instrument would only become binding in the UK as a matter of international law, after satisfying the UK’s usual constitutional requirements. Parliament’s role in the UK remains undiminished in this process.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 13 April 2022 to Question 140404 on Diabetes and Eating Disorders, where the five additional pilot sites areas will be; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Five additional new treatment sites are to open in 2022/23 in the following areas:
- Coventry and Warwickshire;
- Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutlands;
- Norfolk and Waveney;
- Cheshire and Merseyside;
- Humber and North Yorkshire.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
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 help improve the (a) early detection and (b) treatment of prostate cancer; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In February and March 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement and Prostate Cancer UK delivered an awareness campaign on prostate cancer risks. This encouraged men to use Prostate Cancer UK’s clinically approved risk checker to understand their level of risk and make an informed choice on whether to have further tests.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are implementing a best practice timed pathway for prostate cancer, including the use of multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging prior to biopsy for a faster diagnosis. NHS England and NHS Improvement have introduced a new financial incentive for 2022/23 through the Commissioning for Quality and Innovation scheme to support the delivery of the pathway.
In 2018, we allocated £75 million for clinical trials for prostate cancer focusing on improving early diagnosis and survival rates and exploring options for different treatments. Through the Early Access to Medicines Scheme, patients can now access lutetium vipivotide tetraxetan in the treatment of prostate-specific membrane antigen positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if, in cases where carers are rehired by their original employers, having lost their job due to being unvaccinated for covid-19, he will make it his policy to introduce measures whereby they do not lose their accrued employment rights built up prior to their dismissal; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The vaccination requirement for care homes was in force between 11 November 2021 and 14 March 2022. During that period, care homes were legally required to only deploy vaccinated or exempt staff. The re-employment of these staff is matter for each employer, including any accrued entitlements which may have been affected by breaks in service.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
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 therapeutic benefits of bicalutamide in halting the growth of prostate cancer; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We have made no specific assessment. However, bicalutamide (casodex) has been licensed in the United Kingdom for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer since 2000. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has made recommendations on use of bicalutamide in its guideline on the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer, which is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng131/chapter/Recommendations
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2022 to Question 106670, on Diabetes and Eating Disorders, when the means of increasing awareness among healthcare professionals of the risks for those who have type 1 diabetes and an eating disorder will be finalised and rolled out across the NHS; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
Following the initial pilot evaluation findings, NHS England and NHS Improvement are broadening the availability of services to support people with type 1 diabetes related disordered eating. Funding has been made available over two years for up to five additional pilot sites areas from 2022/23.
Future pilot site delivery will include raising awareness of the service and condition with healthcare professionals and the communities they serve. Various resources have been developed by the first two pilot sites, including risk assessment documents, protocol and learning materials. An updated version of the Management of Really Sick Patients with Anorexia Nervosa guidelines is due to be published shortly, including guidance for health professionals on managing patients with type 1 diabetes related disordered eating.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department has undertaken on the potential link between covid-19 vaccine resistance and needle phobias; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) oral or (b) nasal ingestion of that vaccine to increase take-up; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR is not currently supporting specific research on vaccine hesitancy and needle phobias. However, the NIHR and UK Research and Innovation have co-funded research on oral and nasal ingestion of the COVID-19 vaccine. Approximately £580,000 was awarded to Imperial College London for a study on two candidate vaccines administered to the respiratory tract. The NIHR is also providing infrastructure support to two phase one studies in this area through the University of Oxford and Imperial College London.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the total per patient cost to the NHS from commissioning to delivery of administering via injection two doses of the covid-19 vaccine ; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Maggie Throup
As of October 2021, the National Audit Office estimates that the total average deployment cost of two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for the National Health Service is £51.40 in England.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to allocate funding to support research into next generation covid-19 vaccinations that can be administered orally and nasally; and if he will make statement.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR and UK Research and Innovation have co-funded research on oral and nasal ingestion of the COVID-19 vaccine. Approximately £580,000 was awarded to Imperial College London for a study on two candidate vaccines administered to the respiratory tract. The NIHR is also providing infrastructure support to two phase one studies in this area through the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including alternative vaccine delivery methods.