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.
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 his Department has made of the potential impact of staffing levels in cancer care on waiting times for patients to receive treatment.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The development of the National Cancer Plan highlighted areas where there are higher vacancy rates in some areas of the country. The Department and NHS England will work with the royal colleges to encourage resident doctors and internal medicine trainees to specialise in clinical and medical oncology to address these pressures. NHS England will also use training more directly as a lever to support improvements in operational performance, prioritising training places in trusts, often those in rural or coastal areas, where vacancy rates are higher and performance is lower.
Through these interventions, patients will see improvements now, and these training places will secure the workforce for the future. The Department has committed to the National Health Service meeting all cancer waiting time standards by the end of this Parliament, ending a decade of missed targets.
The NHS is determined to cut cancer waiting lists and treatment times. That is why the Department is investing £70 million in new radiotherapy machines in the NHS and opening 170 community diagnostic centres to speed up diagnosis. Furthermore, the NHS will continue to look at opportunities to use artificial intelligence, for example by helping oncologists plan radiotherapy more quickly and accurately. Improved contouring in radiotherapy practice will mean better outcomes and reduced risk of healthy tissue damage, meaning fewer complications for patients and less need for follow up treatment.
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 discussions his Department has had with cancer charities on supporting people with hair loss accessing hair systems.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and the National Health Service in England acknowledge that some cancer patients may face difficulties with hair loss during treatment.
Decisions about the funding and provision of health services are the responsibility of local integrated care boards. NHS Supply Chain has engaged extensively on a national level to thoroughly assess the provision and supply of wigs and related accessories. Collaboration between NHS Supply Chain with industry groups is ongoing to facilitate access to the wigs framework, thereby offering NHS providers a broader selection of products. A key priority throughout this process has been ensuring suitability for individual wearers.
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, if he will outline a timeline he expects there to be standard treatment for recurrent glioblastoma available in the UK.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that there are currently limited treatment options available for people who have been diagnosed with cancerous brain tumours, such as glioblastoma, and recognises the significant impact that this rare cancer can have on patients, carers, and their families.
In October 2025, a new nationwide trial was launched exploring whether surgery can improve the quality of life for patients when glioblastoma comes back after treatment commenced, backed by £1.98 million of National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) funding.
The Government published the National Cancer Plan for England on 4 February 2026, and it was the first ever cancer plan to include a chapter on rare and less common cancers. The plan sets out that we will aim to reduce the number of cancers diagnosed in emergency settings.
To accelerate breakthroughs, the Government will explore innovative procurement methods, such as advance market commitments, to stimulate the development of new diagnostic tests, targeted therapies and more effective treatments for rare cancers, such as brain cancers.
As a result of the significant new commitments to brain tumour research being announced, committed spend on brain tumour research from NIHR programmes alone is now in excess of £40 million since 2018. This is in addition to NIHR investments in infrastructure, which are estimated to be £44.5 million over the period 2018/19 to 2024/25, and UK Research and Innovation commitments of £46.8 million to brain tumour research over the six years from 2018/19 to 2023/24.