Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average life expectancy is for (a) newly diagnosed and (b) recurrent glioblastoma patients in the NHS over the last 10 years.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) in NHS England, as the national cancer registry, collects diagnosis, treatment, and outcome data on cancer patients in England. The NDRS does not routinely publish statistics on life expectancy.
However, NHS England publishes survival data for all cancers, including brain cancer, which includes glioblastoma. Currently, glioblastoma is not included as a separate cancer group in our routine statistics.
The latest data shows one year survival after diagnosis is 41.7% and five‑year survival for brain cancer is 12.9%. The data can be found at the following link:
The Government recognises that glioblastoma is an aggressive and fast‑growing form of brain cancer with poor outcomes and is committed to improving outcomes and investing in research for brain cancers, including glioblastoma. The National Cancer Plan includes a strong focus on rarer and less common cancers, such as brain tumours, to drive earlier diagnosis, improved care, and better survival.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what new personalised treatments for glioblastoma are being assessed.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for assessing new medicines to ensure they meet the required standards of quality, safety, and efficacy before they can be authorised for use in the United Kingdom. The MHRA conducts a rigorous, evidence‑based scientific review of all applications for marketing authorisation and assesses them against statutory timelines. Northwest Biotherapeutics has submitted a marketing authorisation application to the MHRA for DCVax®-L, an immunotherapy for glioblastoma. The MHRA cannot comment on individual applications while they are under assessment but is committed to enabling safe and effective new treatments to reach patients as quickly as possible once the necessary standards are met.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether all new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness. NICE aims wherever possible to issue recommendations on new medicines close to the time of licensing. NICE is in discussions with the manufacturer of DCVax-L, Northwest Biotherapeutics, about a potential appraisal subject to licensing.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
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 NHS professionals are aware of personalised cancer vaccines.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP) is a platform set up to accelerate the development of cancer vaccines and speed up access to mRNA personalised cancer vaccine clinical trials for cancer patients. The CVLP has been instrumental in accelerating trial activity in cancer research, with CVLP sites driving faster activation and enrolment timelines.
The CVLP provides an extended network of referral sites to broaden trial access and to identify eligible patients through genetic analysis, working with the Vaccine Innovation Pathway to optimise patient recruitment. This means that patients can be recruited from across parts of the country and means that the United Kingdom was the fastest recruiting country for the first international trial of personalised vaccination after surgery for colorectal cancer.
As the CVLP continues its phased scale-up across the country, professional awareness is being driven by the expansion of participating trial sites and use of the referral network.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms his department uses to ensure integrated care boards commission children’s palliative care services effectively and in accordance with national quality standards.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member for Leicester South and the Rt. Hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We are providing £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over the next three financial years, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
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 modelling how much integrated care boards should spend on the health elements of children's palliative care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework for England. I refer the Hon. Member for Leicester South and the Rt. Hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We are providing £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over the next three financial years, giving them stability to plan ahead and focus on what matters most, caring for their patients.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether all British citizens are eligible to the same access to healthcare across the UK.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All British citizens who are residents in the United Kingdom are eligible to access healthcare services free at any point of need. In England, Scotland and Wales, this is provided through the National Health Service, and in Northern Ireland through Health and Social Care (HSC). These systems are founded on the principle of providing comprehensive, high-quality healthcare based on clinical need and not the ability to pay.
Health is a devolved matter and the health services in each of the four nations operates under their own legislative and governance arrangements. Eligibility criteria and specific service models may vary between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, the UK Government works closely with the Devolved Governments to support a joined-up approach to healthcare, ensuring that people can receive urgent and emergency healthcare wherever they are in the UK.
We will continue to collaborate with our Devolved Government counterparts across the UK through established intergovernmental structures to share best practise and improve access to high-quality healthcare for all our citizens.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
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 move toward patient self-referral for community audiology services as a default pathway in (a) Chingford and Woodford Green constituency and (b) England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Community audiology services are commissioned by integrated care boards. The priorities and operational planning guidance states that systems are expected to put in place self-referral routes to community audiology services. This was reiterated in the Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care, which specified audiology for older people including hearing aid provision as a service for which self-referral should be available.
Self-referral is not offered for community audiology in north east London, and we have no reported issues with patient access or backlogs in adult audiology services. In Chingford and Woodford Green, residents have access to several community audiology providers in Waltham Forest, such as Audiological Science, Scrivens, Specsavers and The Outside Clinic, and also audiology services at Whipps Cross Hospital.
As part of the National Health Service primary care access recovery plan in England, approximately 380,000 people per year have been able to self-refer for services such as incontinence support, community nursing, podiatry, audiology, and physiotherapy without seeing their general practitioner.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
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 community-based glaucoma (a) monitoring, (b) referral and (c) refinement services are made available to patients in (i) Chingford and Woodford Green constituency and (ii) England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning primary and secondary eye care services in their local areas to meet patient need, and this will include services to meet the needs of patients with glaucoma.
The North East London ICB has confirmed that residents living in Chingford and Woodford Green already have access to glaucoma referral refinement and glaucoma monitoring services in the community.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
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 12 September to Question 4582 on Whipps Cross Hospital, whether his Department has considered a request for the remaining funding for Whipps Cross Hospital.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
£1.2 million has recently been released to Barts Health NHS Trust to support them in continuing the development of their Outline Business Case for the new Whipps Cross Hospital during the review into the New Hospital Programme (NHP). While the review is taking place, we are continuing to support all schemes within the NHP. Requests for funding during this time are being considered on an individual basis. The review will feed into the Spending Review process, where decisions on the outcome will be taken in the round and the Government will confirm the outcome of the review as part of that process.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
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 9 September to Question 3677 on Whipps Cross Hospital: Repairs and Maintenance, whether he plans to provide £2.5 million in funding to complete the Outline Business Case.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As stated in the answer of 9 September 2024 to question 3677, £1.2 million has recently been released to the Barts Health NHS Trust to support them in continuing the development of their Outline Business Case for the new Whipps Cross Hospital.
We are continuing to support schemes in progressing while the review is ongoing, with requests for funding during this time being considered on an individual basis. The review will conclude this autumn, and Parliament will be updated on the next steps for the programme.