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.
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 reduce waiting times for cancer treatment in the East Midlands.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department remains committed to ensuring that all cancer patients, including those in the East Midlands, have timely access to high-quality treatment services.
The Department has invested £70 million into new state of the art radiotherapy treatment machines to replace older, less efficient machines. These new machines are currently being rolled out to trusts and have started treating patients throughout the country. These newer, more powerful machines will reduce treatment times, boost productivity, and allow more patients to be seen.
The recently published National Cancer Plan sets a clear ambition to meet all cancer waiting time standards by the end of this Parliament, ensuring that patients have access to faster diagnosis and treatment. This will be achieved through a modernised, more productive cancer pathway, expansion of diagnostic capacity, harnessing innovative technology, and giving the most challenged trusts intensive support to deliver the improvements patients rightly expect.
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 he is taking to help reduce increases in the number of kidney disease cases.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS England Renal Service Transformation Programme has been established to support the transformation of renal services across England to deliver better services and outcomes in relation to kidney disease. The programme recognises the importance of prevention and optimising screening, detection, and treatment. Regional renal clinical networks, with eight commissioned networks across England, have established workstreams, working with providers to develop transformation programmes to reduce the number of patients progressing through the stages of chronic kidney disease, supporting improved patient outcomes.
NHS England has also established a renal Clinical Reference Group to help drive improvements in diagnosis and treatment for people living with kidney 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 prevent kidney disease.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS England Renal Service Transformation Programme has been established to support the transformation of renal services across England to deliver better services and outcomes in relation to kidney disease. The programme recognises the importance of prevention and optimising screening, detection, and treatment. Regional renal clinical networks, with eight commissioned networks across England, have established workstreams, working with providers to develop transformation programmes to reduce the number of patients progressing through the stages of chronic kidney disease, supporting improved patient outcomes.
NHS England has also established a renal Clinical Reference Group to help drive improvements in diagnosis and treatment for people living with kidney 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 he is taking to help tackle kidney disease.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS England Renal Service Transformation Programme has been established to support the transformation of renal services across England to deliver better services and outcomes in relation to kidney disease. The programme recognises the importance of prevention and optimising screening, detection, and treatment. Regional renal clinical networks, with eight commissioned networks across England, have established workstreams, working with providers to develop transformation programmes to reduce the number of patients progressing through the stages of chronic kidney disease, supporting improved patient outcomes.
NHS England has also established a renal Clinical Reference Group to help drive improvements in diagnosis and treatment for people living with kidney disease.