Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether funding for the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is coming from his Department's existing budgets.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is backing the plan with over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places. This is on top of increases to education and training investment, reaching a record £6.1 billion over the next two years.
The education and training budget for 2024-25 was set at the last Spending Review and the Government is working with NHS England to finalise the budget to make sure it reflects recent pay deals.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether annual budget allocations have been made for 2024-25 in relation to the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is backing the plan with over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places. This is on top of increases to education and training investment, reaching a record £6.1 billion over the next two years.
The education and training budget for 2024-25 was set at the last Spending Review and the Government is working with NHS England to finalise the budget to make sure it reflects recent pay deals.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
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 23 May 2023 to Question 186387 on Cancer: Vaccination and with reference to the oral contribution of the Secretary of State for Scotland on 29 March 2023, Official Report, column 1000, if he will meet the hon. Member for Edinburgh South to discuss cancer vaccine trials.
Answered by Will Quince
In May this year, the Government published its response to Lord O’Shaughnessy’s Review into Commercial Clinical Trials in the United Kingdom. The response accepted the recommendations from the O'Shaughnessy Review and identified five priority commitments to take forwards in the immediate term, backed by £121 million, all aimed at speeding up the set up and running of commercial clinical trials in the UK.
The UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BioNTech in January, bringing their innovative research and development to the whole of the UK. Through the agreement, UK cancer patients will have access to trials exploring personalised mRNA cancer therapies. Ministers regularly meet with parliamentary colleagues across a range of health issues, meeting requests should be sent direct to the Department.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
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 help increase patient access to clinical trials; and what recent discussions he has had with the devolved Administrations on best practice in this area.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department works together with other Government departments and devolved administrations to support research and access to clinical trials across the United Kingdom. Our long-term vision, set out in 'Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery' was developed in collaboration with the devolved administrations and is in line with similar initiatives in England and the devolved administrations.
To gain a better understanding of how health-related data flows in the UK, Professor Cathie Sudlow has been commissioned to conduct a review.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, runs the Be Part of Research service in collaboration with all the devolved administrations. Be Part of Research makes it easier for the public to find and take part in health and care research. The NIHR is also striving to improve diversity in research by analysing the demographics of participants in randomized controlled trials. The findings show that the participants' diversity, age, and gender are representative of the general population.
The NIHR is dedicated to enhancing and investing in the talent pool of researchers in clinical trials. It has implemented measures to address under-representation and improve diversity. These measures include encouraging applications from diverse groups through positive action statements and expanding nomination processes for research fellowships to address under-representation based on gender and ethnicity.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has taken steps to facilitate the sharing of data with (a) other Government departments, (b) the Scottish Government and (c) businesses in the life sciences sector to help develop Scotland’s life science capability and clinical trials capacity.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department works together with other Government departments and devolved administrations to support research and access to clinical trials across the United Kingdom. Our long-term vision, set out in 'Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery' was developed in collaboration with the devolved administrations and is in line with similar initiatives in England and the devolved administrations.
To gain a better understanding of how health-related data flows in the UK, Professor Cathie Sudlow has been commissioned to conduct a review.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, runs the Be Part of Research service in collaboration with all the devolved administrations. Be Part of Research makes it easier for the public to find and take part in health and care research. The NIHR is also striving to improve diversity in research by analysing the demographics of participants in randomized controlled trials. The findings show that the participants' diversity, age, and gender are representative of the general population.
The NIHR is dedicated to enhancing and investing in the talent pool of researchers in clinical trials. It has implemented measures to address under-representation and improve diversity. These measures include encouraging applications from diverse groups through positive action statements and expanding nomination processes for research fellowships to address under-representation based on gender and ethnicity.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
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 with the Scottish Government to facilitate data sharing and improve access to clinical trials in Scotland.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department works together with other Government departments and devolved administrations to support research and access to clinical trials across the United Kingdom. Our long-term vision, set out in 'Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery' was developed in collaboration with the devolved administrations and is in line with similar initiatives in England and the devolved administrations.
To gain a better understanding of how health-related data flows in the UK, Professor Cathie Sudlow has been commissioned to conduct a review.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, runs the Be Part of Research service in collaboration with all the devolved administrations. Be Part of Research makes it easier for the public to find and take part in health and care research. The NIHR is also striving to improve diversity in research by analysing the demographics of participants in randomized controlled trials. The findings show that the participants' diversity, age, and gender are representative of the general population.
The NIHR is dedicated to enhancing and investing in the talent pool of researchers in clinical trials. It has implemented measures to address under-representation and improve diversity. These measures include encouraging applications from diverse groups through positive action statements and expanding nomination processes for research fellowships to address under-representation based on gender and ethnicity.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department will take to increase the diversity of (a) participants and (b) researchers in clinical trials in the UK.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department works together with other Government departments and devolved administrations to support research and access to clinical trials across the United Kingdom. Our long-term vision, set out in 'Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery' was developed in collaboration with the devolved administrations and is in line with similar initiatives in England and the devolved administrations.
To gain a better understanding of how health-related data flows in the UK, Professor Cathie Sudlow has been commissioned to conduct a review.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, runs the Be Part of Research service in collaboration with all the devolved administrations. Be Part of Research makes it easier for the public to find and take part in health and care research. The NIHR is also striving to improve diversity in research by analysing the demographics of participants in randomized controlled trials. The findings show that the participants' diversity, age, and gender are representative of the general population.
The NIHR is dedicated to enhancing and investing in the talent pool of researchers in clinical trials. It has implemented measures to address under-representation and improve diversity. These measures include encouraging applications from diverse groups through positive action statements and expanding nomination processes for research fellowships to address under-representation based on gender and ethnicity.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help encourage vaccine manufacturers to manufacture their vaccines in the UK; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of higher levels of UK-based vaccine production on Scotland.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Over £405 million has been invested through the Vaccine Taskforce to secure and scale up the United Kingdom’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities to ensure a robust response to COVID-19 and potential future health emergencies.
To further improve the UK's resilience to future health emergencies, we have recently announced the £38 million Biomanufacturing Fund to incentivise investment in the biomanufacturing supply chain for vaccines and therapeutics. Together this funding will improve the UK’s resilience to future health emergencies.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
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 the Scottish Government on a coordinated approach to pandemic preparedness.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Whilst no specific discussions have taken place between the Secretary of State and Scottish Government on pandemic preparedness, there is well-established UK-wide working on health security, public health protection and pandemic preparedness across all four United Kingdom nations.
The UK’s approach to pandemic preparedness reflects the fact that health policy is devolved and that emergency response and recovery is founded on a principle of subsidiarity. However, various mechanisms are in place to ensure effective coordination across all four UK nations, including devolved Government representation on the cross-Government Pandemic Diseases Capabilities Board (PDCB). PDCB ensures that critical capabilities for pandemic preparedness and response are maintained and developed across all sectors.
In addition, the approach to taken to clinical countermeasures, which is a key plank of our preparedness and response capability for a future pandemic, is conducted on a UK-wide basis. Representatives from the Devolved Governments and their agencies sit on the Clinical Countermeasures Board to ensure alignment in our approach to the procurement and stockpiling of countermeasures such as vaccines, medicines, and consumables.
More generally, the Common Framework for Public Health Protection and Health Security was agreed by the Four Nations in October 2021 to strengthen strategic collaboration on health security, including communicable diseases. Delivery of the work programme under the Common Framework is overseen by the UK Health Protection Committee, which was established by legislation and is, in turn, supported by a Four Nations Health Protection Oversight Group.
The UK Chief Medical Officer (CMO) group acts as an additional senior level body to ensure alignment and coordination in our approach to health security, including pandemic preparedness, and is accountable to all four UK CMOs.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
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 onshore vaccine manufacturing capability; and what assessment his Department has made of the UK’s preparedness for Disease X.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The United Kingdom’s Government is taking steps across the health family to ensure the UK is prepared for any future pandemic. We have established the Centre for Pandemic Preparedness within UK Health Security Agency which is working to ensure the UK’s future pandemic response is faster, more effective and more efficient to reduce the negative impacts of health threats to the UK.
On vaccines, over £405 million has been invested through the Vaccine Taskforce to secure and scale up the UK’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities to ensure a robust response to COVID-19 and potential future health emergencies.
The UK Government has also announced the £38 million Biomanufacturing Fund to incentivise investment in the biomanufacturing supply chain for vaccines and therapeutics and the Government and Moderna have entered into a long-term strategic partnership in December 2022. Together this funding will improve the UK’s resilience to future health emergencies.