Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the adequacy of mental health support in (a) Ashfield constituency and (b) Nottinghamshire.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold specific assessments of the adequacy of mental health support in Ashfield constituency. Mental health services across Nottinghamshire, including Ashfield, are delivered by the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation. The Care Quality Commission’s most recent inspections at the trust found no services rated inadequate and noted strengthened governance and safer care. However, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has made clear that care has fallen short at the trust and expects to see improvements. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has been closely monitoring the implementation of the recommendations from previous Care Quality Commission reports and has committed to meeting the new leadership of the trust once in place.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the waiting time for emergency ultrasound scans at Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB hospitals.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on waiting times for emergency ultrasound scans.
However, in December 2025, the NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board carried out 2,021 unscheduled, or emergency, non-obstetric ultrasound tests. Unscheduled tests are defined as including the number of diagnostic tests or procedures carried out during the month on patients following an emergency admission, and any diagnostic tests or procedures on patients in accident and emergency.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to review the medical exemption list for prescription charges.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government currently has no plans to review or amend the list of medical conditions that entitle someone to apply for a medical exemption certificate. No assessment has been made of the potential impact of prescription charges on people with inflammatory bowel disease.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of prescription charges on people with IBD.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government currently has no plans to review or amend the list of medical conditions that entitle someone to apply for a medical exemption certificate. No assessment has been made of the potential impact of prescription charges on people with inflammatory bowel disease.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 help improve treatment pathways for patients with secondary breast cancer.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan, published 4 February 2026, has set out actions aimed at supporting people with secondary breast cancer.
NHS England is piloting the use of self-referral breast cancer pathways to streamline diagnostic pathways and free up primary care capacity using the NHS App and NHS 111 online service. This is in addition to the Government’s commitment for NHS England to deliver 9.5 million additional tests by 2029 through a £2.3 billion investment in diagnostics, and to ensure that as many community diagnostic centres as possible are fully operational and open 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
To improve the diagnosis of breast cancer, the National Health Service will harness 'circulating tumour DNA' tests for breast cancer which can pick up relapse months earlier, accelerating clinical decisions and allowing patients to start the most effective treatment faster. The National Cancer Plan has identified four priority areas to accelerate access to new technologies, which include artificial intelligence-assisted interpretation of pathology images for suspected prostate and breast cancer diagnosis.
To improve outcomes for breast cancer patients, NHS England funds the National Audit of Breast Cancer Treatment, covering both primary and metastatic disease. By analysing routine clinical data from NHS settings, these audits identify regional variations in care quality and establish best practices. This will benefit all breast cancer patients, including secondary breast cancer patients.
At the same time, the NHS is focusing on improving the experience of those with a cancer diagnosis. Every patient diagnosed with cancer will be supported through a full neighbourhood-level personalised care package, covering mental and physical health as well as any practical or financial concerns. For people with secondary breast cancer, this will be a step forward in building care around them, their needs, their lives, and their families.
The plan highlights the Government’s ambition to ensure that every person with secondary breast cancer has faster diagnosis and treatment, access to the latest treatments and technology, and high-quality support throughout their journey, while driving up cancer survival rates.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to to strengthen penalties for repeat breaches of tobacco and vape licensing conditions once the Tobacco and Vapes Bill is enacted.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, currently being considered in the House of Lords, provides powers to enable the Government to introduce a licensing scheme for the retail sale of tobacco, vapes, and nicotine products. As set out in the bill, if a retailer is found to be in breach of a condition of their licence, they could receive a civil financial penalty of up to £2,500. Enforcement officers take a proportionate approach to enforcement and will be able to issue a financial penalty at a value that reflects the severity of the breach. Serious cases could face revocation of their licence which would prohibit them from selling relevant products. Selling without a licence will be a serious offence and could result in an unlimited fine on conviction, or a £2,500 on-the-spot fine. We will provide guidance on the licensing scheme to support enforcement officers when issuing civil penalties for licence breaches.
Details of the licensing scheme, including licence conditions and consequences for anyone found to have breached those conditions, will be set out in regulations. We will consult on the specifics of the scheme before bringing forward secondary legislation.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential implications for its policies of the relationship between (a) puff-count capacity, (b) nicotine delivery, and (c) dependence risk in multi-pod or “carousel” style vaping devices.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will stop vapes and nicotine products from being deliberately branded, promoted, and advertised to children and will provide the Government with new powers to restrict the packaging, device appearance, and display of vapes and other nicotine products to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine.
On 8 October 2025, we launched a Call for Evidence which sought evidence on the size and shape of vapes, vape tanks, and the components of vaping products, including pods, puff-count capacity, and nicotine delivery.
We are now reviewing the responses, and these will help inform decisions around our future regulatory approach once the Tobacco and Vapes Bill has been enacted.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as part of their upcoming Circular Economy Growth Plan, will consider evidence across a range of interventions, including but not limited to the regulation of product features to support increased recyclability.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of prohibiting the sale of vaping devices that can hold or connect to more than one e-liquid container at a time.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will stop vapes and nicotine products from being deliberately branded, promoted, and advertised to children and will provide the Government with new powers to restrict the packaging, device appearance, and display of vapes and other nicotine products to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine.
On 8 October 2025, we launched a Call for Evidence which sought evidence on the size and shape of vapes, vape tanks, and the components of vaping products, including pods, puff-count capacity, and nicotine delivery.
We are now reviewing the responses, and these will help inform decisions around our future regulatory approach once the Tobacco and Vapes Bill has been enacted.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, as part of their upcoming Circular Economy Growth Plan, will consider evidence across a range of interventions, including but not limited to the regulation of product features to support increased recyclability.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
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 improve the diagnosis rate for secondary breast cancer.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan, published 4 February 2026, has set out actions aimed at supporting people with secondary breast cancer.
NHS England is piloting the use of self-referral breast cancer pathways to streamline diagnostic pathways and free up primary care capacity using the NHS App and NHS 111 online service. This is in addition to the Government’s commitment for NHS England to deliver 9.5 million additional tests by 2029 through a £2.3 billion investment in diagnostics, and to ensure that as many community diagnostic centres as possible are fully operational and open 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
To improve the diagnosis of breast cancer, the National Health Service will harness 'circulating tumour DNA' tests for breast cancer which can pick up relapse months earlier, accelerating clinical decisions and allowing patients to start the most effective treatment faster. The National Cancer Plan has identified four priority areas to accelerate access to new technologies, which include artificial intelligence-assisted interpretation of pathology images for suspected prostate and breast cancer diagnosis.
To improve outcomes for breast cancer patients, NHS England funds the National Audit of Breast Cancer Treatment, covering both primary and metastatic disease. By analysing routine clinical data from NHS settings, these audits identify regional variations in care quality and establish best practices. This will benefit all breast cancer patients, including secondary breast cancer patients.
At the same time, the NHS is focusing on improving the experience of those with a cancer diagnosis. Every patient diagnosed with cancer will be supported through a full neighbourhood-level personalised care package, covering mental and physical health as well as any practical or financial concerns. For people with secondary breast cancer, this will be a step forward in building care around them, their needs, their lives, and their families.
The plan highlights the Government’s ambition to ensure that every person with secondary breast cancer has faster diagnosis and treatment, access to the latest treatments and technology, and high-quality support throughout their journey, while driving up cancer survival rates.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the commitment to explore novel procurement routes for diagnostics or treatments for rarer cancers contained in the 2026 National Cancer Plan includes assessing the suitability of the current approach to marketing authorisation in respect of treatments for rare and less common cancer.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving survival for rare cancer patients is a priority for the National Cancer Plan. The plan aims for England to climb into the top quartile in Europe for survival of multiple less common cancers by 2035.
We will explore which innovative procurement mechanisms, including advanced market commitments or advanced purchase agreements, could stimulate innovation for rarer cancers.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has completed a public consultation on its draft guideline on individualised mRNA cancer immunotherapies, a new type of personalised cancer treatment. These technologies use cutting-edge science such as artificial intelligence to design a medicine tailored to each patient’s unique tumour profile. The MHRA’s public consultation on its draft guideline on individualised mRNA cancer immunotherapies is available at the following link:
The MHRA will refine the guideline to ensure regulatory expectations are clearly articulated, without hampering innovation. This will facilitate faster access to these promising new therapies, while upholding our standards of safety, quality, and efficacy. The final version of the guideline will be published in the coming months, with future updates anticipated as regulatory experience evolves in this rapidly developing field.
To support measures that improve outcomes for rare cancer patients, the Government will implement the Rare Cancers Bill in full. The bill modernises how rare cancer drugs are approved, making sure our laws keep pace with other leading countries. It guarantees a new national specialty lead for rare cancers within the National Institute for Health and Care Research to drive research and leadership outcomes.