Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
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 (a) social enterprises and (b) cooperatives providing (i) NHS and (ii) social care services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards have a duty to provide health services to meet the needs of their population and already work closely with the voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) sector, which includes the commissioning and delivery of services and, in some cases, by appointing representatives from the VCSE sector to their boards.
Charities, co-operatives, social enterprises and mutuals have always been part of the National Health Service and social care. Today, social enterprises provide services for approximately two thirds of the United Kingdom population, delivering more than £2.5 billion of NHS care each year. This includes services such as community care, primary and urgent care, out-of-hours services, mental health support, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres, end of life care, physiotherapy, audiology.
Social enterprises are often able to take a more agile approach and will continue to be critical to the success of the NHS and in delivery of the 10 Year Health Plan and supporting the three shifts.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
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 adequacy of the performance of Northwick Park Hospital on cancer in the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust provides cancer services at Northwick Park, Central Middlesex, Ealing, and St Mark's Hospitals, with speciality cancer teams at each site. Performance data on cancer pathways is reported at trust level.
The trust demonstrated strong performance up to mid-2023, particularly for the Faster Diagnosis Standard, with 84.7% performance in July 2023 being 14.7 percentage points above the 75% standard, and the 31-day treatment standard, with 100% performance in July 2023 being four percentage points above the 96% standard.
From mid-202,3 data quality issues and a temporary reduction in activity following the implementation of Cerner, an electronic patient record system, plus capacity constraints, saw a decline in performance. Backlogs increased with the number of patients waiting over 104 days for treatment peaking significantly.
A recovery programme was implemented to reduce the backlog, using real-time data to drive action and accountability. Actions included increasing the trust’s capacity and workforce, with specialist nurses, radiographers, and consultants, plus extended hours and weekend clinics. Rapid triage and assessment pathways led to faster diagnosis, along with expanded one-stop clinics, especially for breast cancer and gynaecology, with more patients also being sent straight to test for lower gastrointestinal cancers.
By early 2025, the number of patients wating more than 104 days was close to zero, with a steady improvement seen in two-week waits and the Faster Diagnosis Standard. As the trust has started to stabilise its backlog, there has been significant improvement in the 62 day performance target with the trust continuing to be above the London target of 70%.
Latest waiting time performance from July 2025 has been promising, with the trust achieving 81.5% Faster Diagnosis Standard performance and 100% 31-day treatment performance. 62-day referral to first treatment performance was 83%, one of the best in the country.
Full cancer performance figures are published in the trust’s annual report, which is available at the following link:
https://www.lnwh.nhs.uk/annual-report-and-accounts
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had discussions with the (a) General Medical Council and (b) Health and Care Professions Council on signing the Hillsborough Charter.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
There have been no discussions between the department’s ministers and the General Medical Council or the Health and Care Professions Council on signing the Hillsborough Charter. As set out on 6 December 2023, in the Government's response to Bishop James Jones' independent report, many organisations, in addition to His Majesty’s Government, have already signed the Hillsborough Charter, including the National Police Chiefs’ Council, College of Policing, Crown Prosecution Service, Fire Service, and Kensington and Chelsea Council. This Government will encourage and work with other public bodies to adopt the Charter and commit to learn the lessons of the Hillsborough families disaster, to ensure that the failings we saw in the aftermath of the disaster are never repeated.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether organisations within the NHS are required to sign the Hillsborough Charter.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
There is no requirement for organisations within the National Health Service to sign the Hillsborough Charter but, in line with the Government’s response to Bishop James Jones’ review of the Hillsborough families’ experiences, we will encourage the NHS to adopt the Charter and commit to learn the lessons of the Hillsborough disaster.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many licence applications for (a) plant-based and (b) alcohol-free medicines the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency received in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The following table shows the number of applications for plant-based and alcohol-free medicines that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has received in the last five years:
Year | Plant-based medicines | Alcohol-free medicines |
2019 | 21 | 850 |
2020 | 3 | 1209 |
2021 | 1 | 1242 |
2022 | 1 | 1065 |
2023 | 4 | 1084 |
Source: Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
Notes:
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of NHS staff who have (a) no savings, (b) savings of less than £100 and (c) savings equivalent to less than (i) one and (ii) three month's salary.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department has no plans to make a specific estimate.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how long on average the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency takes to respond to written correspondence from Hon and Rt Hon Members.
Answered by Will Quince
Over the last six months, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency takes (MHRA) Customer Experience Centre have handled on average 5,500 enquiries per month. The MHRA received 56 enquiries from Honourable and Right Honourable Members between 1 December 2022 and 31 May 2023. Of these, seven were responded to within the 18 working day target, 17 were responded to outside of the 18 working day target, and 32 await a response. The average response time across the 56 enquiries is 46.5 days. All 56 enquiries have been acknowledged.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what avenues for new capital funding are available for the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
We are investing over £9 billion in the National Health Service this year to deliver significant new capacity, including through additional beds, community diagnostic centres, surgical hubs, discharge facilities, hospital upgrades and new hospitals.
As the vast majority of funding has already been allocated to individual schemes within these programmes, any new schemes will be considered through a new rolling capital investment programme, that will allow for the construction of more hospitals in the long term.
In the meantime, NHS Trusts should continue to engage with their Integrated Care System to help consider whether there is scope to prioritise schemes within local investment plans.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on arranging capital funding for intensive care bed expansion at Northwick Park Hospital; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
NHS England are currently allocated an additional £250 million to support trusts to increase capacity and improve flow across urgent and emergency care. Northwick Park made a bid as part of the Urgent Emergency Care (UEC) capital fund for a modular unit to reduce pressure on urgent and emergency care services. The programme allocations will be announced in due course.
Investments outside the UEC capital fund would need to be prioritised through the operational capital of integrated care systems.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department has allocated for research into treatment of neuroblastoma in each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Will Quince
A table is attached showing the research funding into treatment of neuroblastoma.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is also supporting delivery in the health and care system of neuroblastoma research, funded by research funding partners in the charity and public sectors. For example, over the last 10 years, the NIHR Clinical Research Network has supported approximately 27 neuroblastoma related studies.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including neuroblastoma. As with other Government funders of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas. The level of research spend in a particular area, is driven by factors including scientific potential and the number and scale of successful funding applications.