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 increase participation in the bowel cancer screening programme in Ashfield.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Bowel cancer screening is delivered through the national NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, which invites eligible people aged 50 to 74 years old every two years, with those aged over 74 years old able to request a test kit. Data for the programme is available at a Nottinghamshire level, and as of January 2026, the test kit return rate was 64.9%, compared with a national average of 54.3%. All individuals in Nottinghamshire with a positive test result were offered an appointment with a specialist screening practitioner within the 14‑day national standard.
NHS England Midlands has implemented a range of measures to increase participation in the screening programme across Nottinghamshire, including for residents of Ashfield. These measures include:
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 increase uptake for bowel cancer screenings.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Coverage of bowel cancer screening has been increasing in recent years. In 2019, 60.5% of people took the offer up, while now it is 71.8%.
The bowel cancer screening programme has standards, including thresholds. The acceptable threshold is the lowest level of performance which screening services are expected to attain. The achievable threshold represents the level at which the screening service is likely to be running optimally.
The threshold levels have recently been reviewed, with changes taking effect from 1 April 2025. The new coverage thresholds for people aged between 60 and 74 years old is an acceptable level of more than or equal to 62%, and an achievable level of more than or equal to 76%.
To further increase coverage across England, NHS England is doing the following:
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 ensure any (a) delays delays to CQC inspections and (b) changes in the level demand in the social care system does not affect the frequency of inspections of care homes.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is holding the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to account for its performance and has strengthened oversight following Dr Penny Dash’s review of the CQC’s operational effectiveness, including improvements in timeliness of assessments.
The CQC has pledged to respond rapidly to urgent and extreme risks, prioritising services registered for over a year without assessment or inspection and those with outdated ratings. From January 2026, this refreshed approach will enable the CQC to prioritise settings, including care homes.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the CQC completed 2,292 assessments of adult social care services. From 1 April 2025 to 22 March 2026, the CQC completed 3,546 assessments of adult social care services, an increase of 55%.
The CQC is piloting a number of initiatives to increase the number of assessments they can deliver in adult care per year to ensure care settings are inspected regularly, and these will be rolled out in the first half of the 2026/27 financial year.
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 ensure that care homes are inspected regularly.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is holding the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to account for its performance and has strengthened oversight following Dr Penny Dash’s review of the CQC’s operational effectiveness, including improvements in timeliness of assessments.
The CQC has pledged to respond rapidly to urgent and extreme risks, prioritising services registered for over a year without assessment or inspection and those with outdated ratings. From January 2026, this refreshed approach will enable the CQC to prioritise settings, including care homes.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the CQC completed 2,292 assessments of adult social care services. From 1 April 2025 to 22 March 2026, the CQC completed 3,546 assessments of adult social care services, an increase of 55%.
The CQC is piloting a number of initiatives to increase the number of assessments they can deliver in adult care per year to ensure care settings are inspected regularly, and these will be rolled out in the first half of the 2026/27 financial year.
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 increase access to medication for people with IBD.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that makes recommendations on whether all new medicines and significant licence extensions for existing medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service in England based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness. In the last three years, NICE has recommended five new drugs for the treatment of moderate to severe Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, including upadacitinib, risankizumab, mirikizumab, etrasimod, and guselkumab. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.
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, 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 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, 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 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.