Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the planned £29 billion annual increase in the NHS budget over the next three years will be allocated to children’s palliative care services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services, including for children, are included in the list of services that integrated care boards (ICBs), including the Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, must commission.
To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The statutory guidance states that ICBs must work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of care services to meet the needs of their local populations, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment.
The Department and NHS England are looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required changes to palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to undertake a comprehensive review of the (a) planning, (b) commissioning and (c) funding of children’s palliative care in South Suffolk.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services, including for children, are included in the list of services that integrated care boards (ICBs), including the Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, must commission.
To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. The statutory guidance states that ICBs must work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of care services to meet the needs of their local populations, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment.
The Department and NHS England are looking at how to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10 Year Health Plan.
The Government and the National Health Service will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative care and end of life care services to ensure that the future state of services reduces variation in access and quality, although some variation may be appropriate to reflect both innovation and the needs of local populations.
Officials will present further proposals to ministers over the coming months, outlining how to operationalise the required changes to palliative care and end of life care to enable the shift from hospital to community, including as part of neighbourhood health teams.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to increase the use of radiotherapy to help reduce local cancer treatment delays.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will improve National Health Service waiting time performance, so patients are diagnosed faster and have quicker access to the treatments they require, including radiotherapy. However, we do recognise that there is much more to be done to ensure that this is the reality for all patients across the country.
Radiotherapy is vital in cancer care, and it remains a key priority for the Government to reduce radiotherapy waiting times and provide the highest quality of treatment available. This is why the Government has invested £70 million of central funding on 28 new radiotherapy machines across the country to replace older, less efficient radiotherapy machines.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
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 NHS radiotherapy waiting times.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will improve National Health Service waiting time performance, so patients are diagnosed faster and have quicker access to the treatments they require, including radiotherapy. However, we do recognise that there is much more to be done to ensure that this is the reality for all patients across the country.
Radiotherapy is vital in cancer care, and it remains a key priority for the Government to reduce radiotherapy waiting times and provide the highest quality of treatment available. This is why the Government has invested £70 million of central funding on 28 new radiotherapy machines across the country to replace older, less efficient radiotherapy machines.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the £50 million allocated for targeted motor neurone disease research has been allocated as of September 2025.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering motor neurone disease research (MND) is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and in particular via the Medical Research Council.
The commitment to allocate £50 million to MND research was introduced by the previous administration. As of 4 June 2025, when the data was last analysed, a total of £50.2 million has been committed to MND research since the start of the 2022/23 financial year. We will continue to invest in MND research via open competition, with no maximum funding limit.
The Government is investing into MND research across a range of areas, including an £8 million investment via the NIHR’s EXPERTS-ALS trial, an early phase clinical research trial which screens for drugs that have the potential to be successful in clinical trials for people with MND.
The MND Translational Accelerator, supported by £6 million of Government funding, is connecting the UK Dementia Research Institute, the UK MND Research Institute, and Dementias Platform UK. Twelve projects have been funded through the accelerator, and all are aimed at speeding up the development of treatments for MND.
The NIHR and UKRI will continue to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including MND. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Welcoming applications on MND to all NIHR and UKRI programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of the amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
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 support research into motor neurone disease.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering motor neurone disease research (MND) is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and in particular via the Medical Research Council.
The commitment to allocate £50 million to MND research was introduced by the previous administration. As of 4 June 2025, when the data was last analysed, a total of £50.2 million has been committed to MND research since the start of the 2022/23 financial year. We will continue to invest in MND research via open competition, with no maximum funding limit.
The Government is investing into MND research across a range of areas, including an £8 million investment via the NIHR’s EXPERTS-ALS trial, an early phase clinical research trial which screens for drugs that have the potential to be successful in clinical trials for people with MND.
The MND Translational Accelerator, supported by £6 million of Government funding, is connecting the UK Dementia Research Institute, the UK MND Research Institute, and Dementias Platform UK. Twelve projects have been funded through the accelerator, and all are aimed at speeding up the development of treatments for MND.
The NIHR and UKRI will continue to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including MND. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Welcoming applications on MND to all NIHR and UKRI programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of the amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
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 trends in the level of regional differences of NHS waiting lists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England regularly monitor regional variation in NHS waiting lists to address variation in performance, so patients can expect to receive high quality care in a timely way, wherever they live.
NHS England offers a range of support to providers across England to address the longest waits and implement reforms, including tailored regional and national support, sharing of best practice, and additional support via their Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme.
Data on current regional waiting lists, as of June 2025, is given in the table below.
Region | Total number of incomplete pathways (size of waiting list) | % within 18 weeks |
London Commissioning Region | 1,193,638 | 62.3% |
South West Commissioning Region | 633,647 | 65.4% |
South East Commissioning Region | 1,096,222 | 61.5% |
Midlands Commissioning Region | 1,353,783 | 60.0% |
East of England Commissioning Region | 928,937 | 57.0% |
North West Commissioning Region | 1,029,327 | 58.6% |
North East and Yorkshire Commissioning Region | 995,897 | 67.5% |
Total (National) | 7,369,169 | 61.5% |
Source: NHS England, Monthly RTT Waiting Times Data Collection
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
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 equal access to advanced cancer diagnostic tools for patients across all regions of the UK.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Health is a devolved matter. The Government is supporting NHS England in ensuring patients have equal access to cancer diagnostic tools across England.
The Department of Health and Social Care is carrying out work to assess the barriers of effective adoption and improve the way artificial intelligence (AI) and diagnostic tools are deployed across the NHS in England. This is alongside the AI Diagnostic Fund, a £21 million fund allocated to 11 imaging networks, covering 64 trusts (49% of total) across all regions in England, to support the deployment of AI diagnostic tools to assist NHS staff to diagnose conditions such as cancer faster.
The NHS Cancer Programme’s Innovation Open Call is held to identify and support the most promising innovations and has funded cancer diagnostic innovations in areas including medical devices, in vitro diagnostics, digital health solutions, behaviour interventions, artificial intelligence, robotics, and new models of care.
The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to latest tools and technology.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether funding for NHS waiting lists is proportionate to the average waiting list time in each region.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
National Health Service funding provided to integrated care boards is decided via NHS England's Fair Share model and through the NHS resource allocation formula.
The NHS resource allocation formula is intended to support equal opportunity of access for equal need, taking account of NHS England’s duty to have regard to the need to reduce health inequalities. The formula takes account of factors such as demography, morbidity, deprivation, and the unavoidable cost of providing services in different areas. In addition, a further adjustment to address health inequalities and unmet needs increases the resources directed to deprived areas. The formula is based on independent academic research and is overseen by the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation, which provides advice to my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive of NHS England. Further detail on fair shares is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/allocations/
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
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 NHS investment to combat waiting lists in (a) Suffolk and (b) nationally.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, set an overall ambition to deliver on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment – in line with the NHS constitutional standard – by March 2029.
We are funding the activity needed to meet this ambition, which included an additional £1.8 billion funding for additional activity delivered in 2024/25, all within a record £25.6 billion increase in funding for the NHS.
As a result of this, good progress has already been seen on the waiting list. As of June 2025, the waiting list had reduced nationally by over 250,000 compared to July 2024.
NHS England’s Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait for 18 weeks or less by March 2026, with every trust, including those in Suffolk, expected to deliver a minimum five percentage point improvement over that period.
As set out in our Elective Reform Plan, we are providing the NHS with the resources it needs to continue to deliver this activity, but with the clear expectation that reforms are implemented in an affordable way.