Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
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 using (a) PET scans, (b) cerebrospinal fluid testing and (c) other bio-marker led tests to confirm Alzheimer's disease.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department delivers dementia research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds a range of research into dementia, for example investing almost £11 million to develop new digital approaches for the early detection and diagnosis of dementia.
The Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme has already invested £13 million into a range of biomarker innovation projects which include biomarker technologies, ranging from an artificial intelligence tool designed to improve the accuracy of blood tests for dementia, to using retinal scans to detect early-onset dementia decades before symptoms. Some of these innovations could support improved diagnosis in the future, if validated for clinical use.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
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 increase the proportion of Alzheimer's disease specialists compared to other G7 countries.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). We expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
We want all health and care staff to have received appropriate training to provide high quality care to people with dementia. Employers in the health system are responsible for ensuring that their staff are trained to the required standards to deliver appropriate care for patients. The required training needs are set out in the Dementia Training Standards Framework, which is available through Skills For Health at the following link:
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria his Department has used to determine which integrated care boards should merge.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has asked the integrated care boards (ICBs) to act primarily as strategic commissioners of health and care services, and to reduce the duplication of responsibilities within their structure, with the expectation of achieving a 50% cost reduction in their running cost allowance. NHS England provided additional guidance to ICBs, National Health Service trusts, and NHS foundation trusts on 1 April 2025, where ICBs were tasked with developing plans by the end of May setting out how they will manage their resources to deliver across their priorities. This letter can be found at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/working-together-in-2025-26-to-lay-the-foundations-for-reform/
Details of how ICBs will work together to share functions and agree clustering arrangements to deliver services and meet local needs may emerge following the publication the plans.
Ministers and the Department will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir Jim Mackey, to ensure ICBs continue to fulfil their future functions effectively, within the running costs cap, and unlock the benefit of working at scale to deliver better care for patients.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
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 time taken by integrated care boards to add new National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-recommended medicines to their formularies on the ability of NHS patients to access new treatments.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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 their costs and benefits. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended in a NICE technology appraisal, usually within three months of final guidance.
The NICE has published guidance on the adoption of medicines in local formularies which states that once a NICE technology appraisal recommends a medicine, it must be included in a local formulary within three months, providing it is clinically appropriate and relevant to the services provided by the organisation, or within 30 days for Early Access to Medicines Scheme medicines.
As part of the commitments made in the 2024 voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access and growth (2024 VPAG), NHS England agreed to the development of a local formulary national minimum dataset within the first half of the 2024 VPAG, to increase visibility of local variation in the implementation of NICE guidance, identify where variation in local formularies may be creating barriers to access, and to confirm to NHS England when a NICE recommended treatment has been placed on a local formulary.
NHS England also agreed to use the dataset to inform a report, which will be published no less frequently than annually, identifying unwarranted variation between national guidance and local formularies.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information has been provided to him on the reason for the delay on publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Research research brief that will inform the UK National Screening Committee’s in-service evaluation of newborn screening for Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has been kept informed of the plans being developed for the in-service evaluation of newborn screening for spinal muscular atrophy, including the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s brief. The Department is working with NHS England on the deliverability of the in-service evaluation. The roll out and timeline will be confirmed after the conclusion of the 2025 Spending Review.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
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 7 March 2025 to Question 35541 on Hormone Replacement Therapy, what discussions he has had with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on the adequacy of the number of (a) manufacturers that produce and (b) importers of HRT implants.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Oestrogen and testosterone hormone replacement therapy (HRT) implants are not licenced in the United Kingdom. The Department is working closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to ensure safe access to these products. We have also reached out to specialist importers who can source unlicensed medicines in order to find alternative sources of both HRT implants for UK patients. We will continue to work closely with the MHRA, and the National Health Service to ensure suitable alternatives are available for patients.
The MHRA has held regular discussions with the importer of the unlicenced medicine and the Department is actively looking at this to ensure ongoing supply from this and other sources. Stakeholder groups, including the Patient Safety Commissioner and the British Menopause Society, have also been kept actively informed.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
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 7 March 2025 to Question 35541 on Hormone Replacement Therapy, what discussions he has had with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on encouraging manufacturers to apply for a UK license for HRT implants.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Oestrogen and testosterone hormone replacement therapy (HRT) implants are not licenced in the United Kingdom. The Department is working closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to ensure safe access to these products. We have also reached out to specialist importers who can source unlicensed medicines in order to find alternative sources of both HRT implants for UK patients. We will continue to work closely with the MHRA, and the National Health Service to ensure suitable alternatives are available for patients.
The MHRA has held regular discussions with the importer of the unlicenced medicine and the Department is actively looking at this to ensure ongoing supply from this and other sources. Stakeholder groups, including the Patient Safety Commissioner and the British Menopause Society, have also been kept actively informed.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
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 7 March 2025 to Question 35541 on Hormone Replacement Therapy, what discussions he has had with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on the adequacy of the process for applying for UK licenses for HRT implant manufacturers.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The processes of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are now performing within the expected timelines, and are meeting company commitments. Guidance has been updated on 3 April 2024 to aid the rapid approval of medicines, ensuring that quality, safety, and efficacy assessments are completed.
The assessment of hormone replacement therapy products falls within these overall processes, and we are working closely with Department’s medicines supply to ensure the early flagging of issues, so they can be resolved by either companies or the MHRA.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
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 the report on economic review into community pharmacy.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England commissioned Frontier Economics to undertake an independent economic analysis of National Health Service pharmacy funding in 2024. This work is now complete and was published on 28 March 2025 on Frontier Economics’ website.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
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 potential merits of launching newborn screening for Spinal Muscular Atrophy alongside the upcoming launch of newborn screening for severe combined immunodeficiency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is working with the spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) partnership board to scope out the potential shape of the in-service evaluation into SMA. The partnership board includes clinicians, academics, patient representatives, the National Institute for Health and Research (NIHR), NHS England, and the UK NSC. The final decision on the exact format, scale, and duration will be determined following a successful NIHR tendering process. The timescale for the implementation of the SMA in-service evaluation will not be confirmed until after the 2025 Spending Review.
The UK NSC is aware that screening for SMA and severe combined immunodeficiency uses the same test, and as such there may be saving opportunities through economies of scale, if the two conditions are determined to be suitable for a screening programme. This is still under consideration by the committee.