Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in the Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on extending medical evacuation support to people currently in Gaza requiring access to urgent or serious medical treatment who have families based in the UK.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 25 July 2025, the Prime Minister announced that the United Kingdom was taking immediate steps to alleviate the humanitarian situation, including getting injured children out of Gaza and into British hospitals. 50 children and their immediate families have been evacuated from Gaza to the UK as part of the UK Government led process. Participation in the UKG Gaza Medevacs is solely through the World Health Organization supported process and UKG will not consider direct requests for assistance. Outside of the UKG Gaza Medevacs process those wishing to come to the UK from Gaza should do so under the existing immigration rules.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
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 adequacy of appraisal processes for (a) Freidrich’s Ataxia, (b) Neiman Pick’s disease and (c) other rare diseases for exceptional conditions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) methods have been proven to be suitable for the evaluation of rare disease medicines, where companies are willing to price their medicines fairly. NICE’s approval rate for medicines for rare diseases is in line with its overall approval rate for new medicines, with 91% of medicines licensed for rare diseases recommended for some or all of the eligible patient population since April 2024.
NICE initiated an appraisal of Skyclarys (omaveloxolone) for the treatment of Friedrich’s Ataxia for people aged 16 years old and over but has had to terminate its appraisal as the company has withdrawn its evidence submission. NICE will review its decision if the company decides to make a new submission. Olipudase alfa for treating Niemann-Pick disease types B and AB was evaluated through NICE’s highly specialised technologies (HST) programme, which is reserved for a small number of medicines for very rare and very severe diseases. The HST programme uses a much higher cost-effectiveness threshold than a standard NICE appraisal that recognises the challenges of developing medicines for very small patient populations. NICE’s independent evaluation committee recognised that the evidence showed that the treatment improved lung function but found that there were uncertainties in the economic model. Even when taking into account the substantial clinical benefits of treatment and the higher threshold, it was unable to recommend it as a cost-effective use of National Health Service resources.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the (a) Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 and (b) Articles (i) 42 and (ii) 43 of that Act on same-sex, non-married or civil partnered couples who both wish to included on their child’s birth certificate.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Section 42 and 43 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 provide a framework of protection from disputes over legal parenthood. These provisions allow female couples who are married or in a civil partnership, or who have undertaken treatment in a United Kingdom licenced clinic, to both register as parents. Fertility treatment in an UK licenced clinic also offers important health screening protections and access for donor-conceived children to information about their genetic origins through the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s register.
There are no current plans to review these provisions in the Act.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 10 year plan for the NHS, what steps he plans to take to ensure that equality of access to the NHS is retained for all.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan, along with associated policies and initiatives, details several measures to ensure equality of access to the NHS is retained for all. This includes:
- Redirecting funds to deprived areas: Funding flows are being realigned towards areas with the highest health needs, targeting communities with disproportionate economic and health challenges.
- Building Neighbourhood Health Centres: New "one-stop shop" health centres will be established in every community, starting with areas that have the lowest healthy life expectancy. These centres will provide integrated, multi-professional care closer to people's homes and will often be open for extended hours to improve convenience.
- Addressing waiting list inequalities: The NHS now publishes waiting list data broken down by deprivation, ethnicity, age, and sex to identify and address unfair variations in waiting times.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many families subject to no recourse to public funds in Northern Ireland (a) are in receipt of Healthy Start and (b) have had their application for Healthy Start rejected.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department transferred the Healthy Start Extension Scheme to the NHS Business Services Authority at the beginning of April 2025.
Since April 2025, and as of the 11 June 2025, there are no families in Northern Ireland subject to no recourse to public funds who are in receipt of the Healthy Start Extension Scheme, or who have had an application rejected.
The Department does not hold data on the number of rejected applications prior to the NHS Business Services Authority taking over the running of the extension scheme in April 2025.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a national redress scheme for (a) mothers and (b) children living with fetal valproate syndrome.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. We will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report at the earliest opportunity. Although the Hughes Report and its recommendations only cover patients harmed in England, the Government recognises that any response will likely have implications for Northern Ireland and is engaging with the Minister for Health in the Northern Ireland Executive on the Hughes Report.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
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 improve NHS diagnostic processes for glioblastoma brain tumours.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Department is working with NHS England in taking steps to improve diagnostic processes in the National Health Service for all patients with cancer, including those with glioblastoma brain tumours.
We will get the NHS diagnosing cancer, including brain tumours, on time, diagnosing it earlier and treating it faster so more patients survive, and we will improve patients’ experience across the system. We will address the challenges in diagnostic waiting times, providing the number of CT, magnetic resonance imaging and other tests that are needed to reduce cancer waits.
To do this, we set out expectations for renewed focus on cancer targets in the Elective Reform plan, published on 6 January 2025. We have asked systems and providers to identify local opportunities in both community diagnostic centres (CDCs) and hospital based diagnostic services to improve performance against the Faster Diagnosis Standard, to reduce the number of patients waiting too long for a confirmed diagnosis of cancer. Any new CDCs will be expected to include specific capacity for cancer testing as part of activity plans, enabled either through direct provision or via freeing up acute hospital capacity for more complex cancer tests.
In September 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) announced new research funding opportunities for brain cancer research, including glioblastoma, spanning both adult and paediatric populations. This includes a national NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium, to ensure the most promising research opportunities are made available to adult and child patients and a new funding call to generate high quality evidence in brain tumour care, support, and rehabilitation.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with the devolved administrations on development of a new HIV Action Plan.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Health is a devolved matter and it is the responsibility of individual governments to commission comprehensive healthcare based on population need. All four nations, however, are committed to reducing HIV transmissions.
The new HIV Action Plan, which is due to be published in summer 2025, will apply to England only. Government officials in England meet regularly with their counterparts in the devolved governments, to share information and best practice on our response to HIV.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the current age range for bowel cancer screening.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Based on advice from the UK National Screening Committee, NHS England committed in the Long Term Plan to extend the age range of people eligible for bowel screening using the FIT home testing kit from age 60 down to age 50.
The age extension for bowel screening is already underway. NHS England started in April 2021 with the 56-year-old cohort and, based on modelling and clinical advice, has planned to gradually reduce to age 50 by 2025. This has been done to ensure that screening centres could manage any required increase in colonoscopy capacity.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Hughes report published by the Patient Safety Commissioner on 7 February 2024, if he will take steps to introduce a compensation scheme which is open to (a) all UK and (b) Northern Ireland patients affected by sodium valproate.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. We will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report at the earliest opportunity. Although the Hughes Report and its recommendations only cover patients harmed in England, the Government recognises that any response will likely have implications for the whole of the United Kingdom, and so we will engage with the devolved administrations on the Hughes Report.
Healthcare in Northern Ireland is a devolved matter and, as such, it is respectfully requested that the question on introducing a compensation scheme for individuals harmed by sodium valproate in Northern Ireland be redirected to the Justice Minister for Northern Ireland or the Minister for Health for Northern Ireland, to be handled at a devolved level.