Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
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 support professional training for GPs in the use of integrated clinical decision tools to better identify (a) vague or (b) non-specific symptoms of less survivable cancers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
General practitioners (GPs) are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development.
All United Kingdom registered doctors are also expected to meet the professional standards set by the General Medical Council (GMC). In 2012, the GMC introduced revalidation, which supports doctors in regularly reflecting on how they can develop or improve their practice.
The training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), and has to meet the standards set by the GMC. The RCGP provides a number of resources on cancer prevention, diagnosis, and care for GPs, relevant for the primary care setting.
Improving diagnosis rates and access to treatment are key priorities for the Government for all cancer types, including rare and less common cancers.
We are improving public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlining referral routes, and increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres. We are also investing an additional £889 million in GPs to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade.
We are committed to ensuring that GPs have the right training and systems to identify cancer. Use of specific clinical decision support tools are agreed at a local level.
The recently announced National Cancer Plan, which will complement the 10-Year Health Plan and support delivery of the Government’s Health Mission, will set out further actions to improve diagnosis, including for rare and less common cancers. The plan will also provide further details on how we will ensure patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, ultimately bringing this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
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 projects delivered through the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund support net zero objectives.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that recognises the importance of strategic, value for money investments in capital projects, such as new facilities, significant upgrades, or other targeted capital investments, to ensure we have world class infrastructure across the entire National Health Service estate.
The £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund will deliver upgrades this financial year to more than a thousand general practice surgeries across England. The schemes will create additional clinical space within existing building footprints to enable practices to see more patients, boost productivity, and improve patient care.
The NHS has set a clear target of 2040 for achieving Net Zero across the estate, and all capital investment is expected to work toward this ambition where possible. This is supported by a raft of documents and standards, including the Estates Net Zero Carbon Delivery Plan, and the NHS Net Zero Building Standard, which applies to all investments in new buildings and upgrades to existing facilities that are subject to HM Treasury business case approval processes.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NICE (a) is reviewing and (b) plans to review available vaccines for Urinary Tract Infection for use in the UK.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is not currently reviewing vaccines for urinary tract infections.
Prophylactic vaccinations are considered by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. However, therapeutic vaccinations, for example, for cancer or another condition, are considered by NICE.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Patients and pupils to benefit from school and hospital repairs, published on 30 May 2025, how that funding will be delivered to the NHS; and how much funding each Integrated Care Board will receive.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The £750 million Estates Safety Fund is part of the overall 2025/26 capital allocation announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Autumn Budget last year, and is an essential first step towards addressing the poorest quality estates across the National Health Service.
Integrated care systems have prioritised this funding between their organisations to deliver maximum safety benefits. Funding will be issued to NHS trusts on the basis of individual schemes. Descriptions of the planned works and funding allocations, grouped by integrated care board, are available at the following link:
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to Question 51210, tabled by the hon. Member for Wokingham on 9 May 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 2 June 2025 to Questions 51207, 51208 and 51210.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to Question 51208, tabled by the hon. Member for Wokingham on 9 May 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 2 June 2025 to Questions 51207, 51208 and 51210.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to Question 51207 tabled by the hon. Member for Wokingham on 9 May 2025.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 2 June 2025 to Questions 51207, 51208 and 51210.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference the New Hospital Programme: plan for implementation, published 20 January 2025, how much funding his Department plans to allocate for the construction of the Royal Berkshire Hospital; and what proportion of that funding will be from (a) public dividend capital, (b) land sales and (c) charitable donations.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have put the New Hospital Programme (NHP) on a sustainable footing, with a timeline that can be met, and a budget that is consistent with the fiscal rules under which the Government is operating. We are backing this plan with investment which will increase to up to £15 billion over each consecutive five-year wave, averaging approximately £3 billion a year from 2030. The exact profile of funding will be confirmed in rolling five-year waves at regular Spending Reviews, as with all government capital budgets in future.
As set out in the NHP Plan for Implementation, the cost estimate of the Royal Berkshire Hospital is expected to be £2 billion or more; however, the final individual amount for the scheme will only be confirmed once its Full Business Case has been approved, as set out in the HM Treasury Green book and is standard for large infrastructure projects. The proportion of funding, including those from additional sources such as land sales and charitable donations, will be confirmed through this business case process.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
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 through the NHS 10 Year Plan to improve early diagnosis in (a) ovarian cancer and (b) other women’s health conditions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to improving early diagnosis of all cancer types, including ovarian cancer.
The 10-Year Health Plan will deliver the three big shifts our National Health Service needs to be fit for the future: from hospital to community; from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention. All of these are relevant to improving early diagnosis and support for women’s health conditions in all parts of the country.
As a first step, the NHS is now delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to ensure early diagnosis and faster treatment, including for women with ovarian cancer. NHS England is continuing the roll out of community diagnostic centres to ensure that patients can access the diagnostic tests they need as quickly as possible. The NHS is also improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred, including non-specific symptom pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway. Combined, these interventions will help to improve the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer and reduce misdiagnosis, with further actions to be outlined in the forthcoming National Cancer Plan, which will follow the 10-Year Health Plan.
The Department is also committed to improving the diagnosis of women’s health conditions more broadly by taking urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the Elective Reform Plan, supporting innovative models offering patients care closer to home, and by piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres. Moreover, the Department supports the use of clinical guidelines that help healthcare professionals identify and manage these conditions. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidelines on a range of women’s health conditions, including heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and menopause.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
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 plan the (a) resources and (b) workforce capacity required for new (i) medical technologies and (ii) medicines.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department recognises that the successful adoption of new medical technology and medicines depends on robust planning for both resources and workforce capacity. We are taking a multi-pronged approach through the 10-Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan (LSSP) to ensure that the health system will be equipped to deliver at scale, and incentives are in place for the National Health Service and industry to optimise the uptake of innovative medical technology and medicines.
The NHS is actively investing in, and implementing, digital infrastructure to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and accessibility of healthcare services. One of the three big shifts of the 10-Year Health Plan is from analogue to digital, and we will harness the digital revolution for the benefit of patients and staff. The Government is investing more than £2 billion into NHS technology and digital capabilities, to run essential services and drive NHS productivity improvements. This will free up staff time, ensure all trusts have electronic records, improve cyber security, and enhance patient access via the NHS App.
The Government’s Medical Technology Strategy instigated work to improve the innovation and procurement pathways. The LSSP and 10-Year Health Plan will build on this progress, and we will set out our plans shortly. This will also include investment in digital infrastructure and policy plans for the modernisation of procurement pathways to accelerate the safe and effective deployment of new medical technologies.
Regarding workforce capacity, the Department will publish a refreshed workforce plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again. This will ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need, when they need it.