Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
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 people with incurable secondary breast cancer may receive timely treatment in covid-19 free hubs and sites.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
NHS England and NHS Improvement have put in place arrangements to ensure that essential and urgent treatment for cancers has continued throughout the response to the pandemic, including issuing clear guidance to the system and supporting the development of cancer ‘hubs’ for surgery. This is dependent on the advice of clinicians, who will consider the possible risks and with patient safety at core of the decision making process.
The National Health Service is now working to restore and recover all cancer services, including for people with secondary breast cancer, in ways that keep patients as safe as possible.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that (a) the 30 per cent of exported UK plastic waste destined for Turkey is managed to standards equivalent to those in the UK and (b) leakage into the environment, rivers and seas is prevented.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK and Turkey are both Parties to the United Nations Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and Their Disposal. The Convention provides a global system for controlling the export of hazardous wastes and wastes collected from households. The UK and Turkey are also both members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and are subject to an OECD Council Decision which provides the legal framework for the control of movements of wastes within the OECD to ensure the environmentally sound and economically efficient recovery of wastes.
The requirements of the Basel Convention and the OECD Decision are implemented in UK law by the EU Waste Shipment Regulations and the UK Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations. This legislation requires that those involved in the shipments of waste take all necessary steps to ensure waste is managed in an environmentally sound manner throughout its shipment and during its recycling or recovery in the country of destination.
The UK regulators take a proactive and intelligence-led approach to checking compliance with waste shipments legislation and intervene to stop illegal exports taking place when necessary. In England in 2018/19, the Environment Agency (EA) inspected almost 1,000 shipping containers at ports and returned over 200 of those to sites. During this period, the EA also prevented 12,000 tonnes of waste from reaching ports which may have otherwise been exported illegally.
Any operators found to be illegally exporting waste can face severe sanctions - from financial penalties to imprisonment for a period of up to two years.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish data from the field testing for the new faster diagnosis standard for cancer due to be implemented in April 2020.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Faster Diagnosis Standard for cancer is being tested as part of the Clinical Review of Standards. The findings from this testing are due to be published by NHS England and NHS Improvement in the spring.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether local authorities are able to use the New Homes Bonus to fund refuse services; and how many local authorities use the New Homes Bonus for revenue spending.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The New Homes Bonus is an unringfenced grant, this allows local authorities to use the funding as they see fit, as the Government recognises that authorities are in the best position to make decisions about local priorities. Authorities are expected to engage with their local community to decide how the money is spent. The Department does not monitor how individual authorities spend their allocations.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
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 Sir Mike Richards of NHS England on workforce implications for the NHS workforce in supporting the Independent Review of National Cancer Screening Programmes.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to reports that the Chair of HS2 Ltd, Mr Allan Cook has written to his Department stating the high-speed line cannot be delivered within its £56bn budget, what steps he is taking to update Parliament on the new cost projections for High Speed Two; when he plans to publish the findings of Mr Cook’s review; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Prime Minister has appointed Douglas Oakervee to chair an independent review of HS2 to consider whether and how we proceed with the project. The review will consider all existing evidence on the project and consider a number of aspects of the programme, including its benefits and impacts; affordability and efficiency; deliverability; and scope and phasing, including its relationship with Northern Powerhouse Rail. The Review’s full terms of reference are available on gov.uk. Allan Cook’s findings will be part of the evidence for this review.
A final report will be sent to the Department in the autumn to inform the Government’s decision on the next steps for the project. We will publish this Review and take decisions on the HS2 project once we have considered the findings.
The Government has published Allan Cook's assessment and is available in the libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the timeline is for the implementation of personalised cancer care interventions for all patients, including those with secondary cancers, including access to a clinical nurse specialist or other support worker.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Plan, what steps he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to meet the target that 50 per cent of people taking part in clinical trials are teenagers and young adults by 2025.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is committed to the involvement, engagement and participation of children and young people (CYP) in all relevant research, supporting researchers and funders, as well as empowering children and young people to lead their own journey with research.
The NIHR is working with NHS England, cancer charities, teenage and young adult cancer patients, and clinicians towards meeting this NHS Long Term Plan commitment relating to CYP with cancer.
The NIHR Clinical Research Network has held two summits. The first summit, held in 2017, developed a clear strategy. The second summit, held in April this year, focused on ensuring that the strategy’s objectives were still fit for purpose, and that the right stakeholders were engaged to ensure successful delivery. The NIHR Clinical Research Network is now funding a dedicated teenage and young adult cancer research nurse in each of its 15 Local Clinical Research Networks, with posts made available from 1 April 2019.
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
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 with women who are transitioning to men to (a) inform them about and (b) screen them for the risk of contracting breast cancer.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
In July 2017, Public Health England published a leaflet for people who are transgender or non-binary to help provide information about National Health Service population screening programmes that are available. This leaflet is available at the following link:
The leaflet helps ensure that trans people can access the screening that is most appropriate for them. The leaflet also outlines who the NHS screening programmes invite for breast screening, bowel cancer, cervical screening and abdominal aortic aneurysm screening and includes important information about all four screening programmes as well as how to access additional support and advice.
Routine breast screening is available to both trans men and trans women. It is important that to access this offer, trans men and women are registered at their general practice as a female. A trans man, if registered with their general practitioner (GP) as a man, can still access breast screening if they talk to their GP to arrange a referral. This guidance can be viewed at page six of the guidance available at the following link:
Asked by: Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the response of Homes England to freedom of information request reference RFI2673, whether his Department plans to reopen the ballot for the Voluntary Right to Buy Midlands Pilot for Housing Association tenants as a result of the low take-up in that ballot.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Over 9,000 people entered the ballot for the Midlands pilot of the Voluntary Right to Buy, and 6,000 of these received Unique Reference Numbers to move forward with their purchase. The Government is closely monitoring the progress of the pilot, the number of Unique Reference Numbers that are resulting in applications to buy, and the spending of the budget. There are no plans to run a second ballot – if this position changes, the Government will make an announcement.