Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will prioritise (a) research into, (b) diagnosis of and (c) treatment of pancreatic cancer in the new National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, as well as prevention, and research and innovation. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer, including patients with pancreatic cancer.
NHS England is providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer. NHS England is additionally creating pathways to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms, and is increasing direct access for general practitioners to diagnostic tests.
The plan will include further details on how we will speed up diagnosis and treatment, ensure patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately bring this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
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 improve survival rates for pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving survival rates for all cancers, including pancreatic cancer, is a priority for the Government. As the first step to ensuring faster diagnosis and treatment, we have delivered an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week.
NHS England is providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at high-risk to identify lesions before they develop into cancer. NHS England is additionally creating pathways to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms and is increasing direct access for general practitioners to diagnostic tests.
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. It will aim to ensure that patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately bring this country’s cancer survival rates, including for those with pancreatic cancer, back up to the standards of the best in the world.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will have discussions with independent pharmacy owners on ensuring an equitable contract for community pharmacies.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that pharmacies are an integral part of the fabric of our communities. They provide an easily accessible ‘front door’ to the National Health Service, staffed by highly trained and skilled healthcare professionals.
We have now concluded the most recent consultation on funding for 2024/25 and 2025/26, and have agreed with Community Pharmacy England to increase the community pharmacy contractual framework to £3.073 billion. Community Pharmacy England represent all pharmacy contractors, including independents. This deal represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the NHS, over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26. This shows a first step in delivering stability for the future and a commitment to rebuilding the sector.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will consider linking pharmacy funding to (a) inflation and (b) the National Living Wage.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have taken necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget, and this enabled the Spending Review settlement of a £22.6 billion increase in resource spending for the Department from 2023/24 outturn to 2025/26.
We have now agreed with Community Pharmacy England to increase the community pharmacy contractual framework to £3.073 billion from April 2025. This deal represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service, at over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26. This shows a first step in delivering stability for the future and a commitment to rebuilding the sector.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
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 the number of Integrated Care Boards in England which have a Fracture Liaison Service.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) are a globally recognised care model and can reduce the risk of refracture for people at risk of osteoporosis by up to 40%.
Data for integrated care systems (ICS) is available from the FLS Database, a national audit of secondary fracture prevention services in England and Wales, for which services must have an existing FLS to be eligible to participate. This dashboard suggests that at least 32 ICSs had at least one trust that offered FLS in 2024.
We remain committed to rolling out FLS across every part of the country by 2030. In the meantime, we are investing in 14 high-tech DEXA scanners, which are expected to provide an extra 29,000 scans to ensure that people with bone conditions get diagnosed earlier.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of Integrated Care Boards in England have a Fracture Liaison Service.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) are a globally recognised care model and can reduce the risk of refracture for people at risk of osteoporosis by up to 40%.
Data for integrated care systems (ICS) is available from the FLS Database, a national audit of secondary fracture prevention services in England and Wales, for which services must have an existing FLS to be eligible to participate. This dashboard suggests that at least 32 ICSs had at least one trust that offered FLS in 2024.
We remain committed to rolling out FLS across every part of the country by 2030. In the meantime, we are investing in 14 high-tech DEXA scanners, which are expected to provide an extra 29,000 scans to ensure that people with bone conditions get diagnosed earlier.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps with NHS England to review the (a) volume and (b) type of antidepressants prescribed on the NHS and their (i) side effects, (ii) long-term effectiveness and (iii) addictiveness.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Institute of Care and Excellence (NICE) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are the relevant regulatory bodies in this area. While antidepressants can be helpful for some patients, NICE guidance recommends a range of non-drug options that should be considered first for people who present with less severe mental health conditions.
For patients diagnosed with depression, antidepressants are an effective treatment method. NICE has produced guidelines on antidepressants, which are available at the following link:
To ensure antidepressant drugs are made available to patients only where the benefits outweigh the potential harms, NHS England is encouraging integrated care boards to address inappropriate antidepressant prescribing and to consider commissioning services for patients wishing to reduce or stop antidepressants.
MHRA is leading a project to improve the information supplied with dependency-forming medicines. The project aims to improve risk minimisation measures and better inform and educate healthcare professionals and patients about the risk of dependence, addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal related to a wide range of medicines, including antidepressants in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the time taken for medical examiners to issue death certificates.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is monitoring the impact of the death certification reforms, including the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death Regulations 2024, which came into legal effect on 9 September 2024. Early data indicates the median time taken to register a death appears to have risen by one day, from seven days to eight days. This figure is for all deaths, as it includes those certified by a doctor and those investigated by a coroner. The average time taken to register has increased further over the recent Christmas weeks, but this was expected given increases are observed during this period every year; the average is expected to decrease again as more data becomes available for January and February 2025. The median time taken to register a death varies depending on the type of certification. Deaths certified by a doctor, that comprise approximately 80% of deaths registered each week, have typically had a median time to registration of seven days. We note that the medical examiner system was active on a non-statutory basis before the introduction of the statutory system on 9 September 2024, and this makes direct ‘before’ and ‘after’ comparisons challenging to draw conclusions from.
The core purposes of the death certification reforms are to introduce scrutiny of the cause of death to detect and deter malpractice, to improve reporting, and crucially to put the bereaved at the centre of the process by offering a conversation with the medical examiner about the cause of death. The expectation on doctors and medical examiners is clear, that they should complete certification as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the Government is working with all stakeholders to make sure this is the case.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will increase the funding available to local authorities to provide living services for people with learning disabilities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
High quality, safe, and suitable homes can help people stay independent and healthy for longer and reduce the need to draw on health and social care provision.
We are giving disabled people, including those with learning disabilities, more independence in their own homes through an immediate in-year uplift to the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) of £86 million in 2024/25. This increase will provide approximately 7,800 additional home adaptations. This is on top of the £625 million paid to local authorities in May 2024. The Government also announced an £86 million additional investment in the DFG for the 2025/26 financial year at the Budget, bringing total funding for 2025/26 to £711 million.
We also incentivise the supply of supported housing for older people and adults with a physical or learning disability, autistic people, or adults with mental ill-health.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will introduce age-related universal testing for prostate cancer.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Screening for prostate cancer is currently not recommended in the United Kingdom, due to the inaccuracy of the current best test, the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test.
A UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) review, looking at whether to offer screening for prostate cancer, is currently underway. This evidence review will cover the modelling of the clinical and cost effectiveness of several approaches to prostate cancer screening. This will include different potential ways of screening the whole population as well as targeted screening aimed at groups of people identified as being at higher-than-average risk, such as black men or men with a family history of cancer.
Once the modelling and evidence review are complete, it will be considered by the UK NSC. Provided that no further revisions are required, the UK NSC plans to look at the findings towards the end of 2025. Further details of the UK NSC’s evidence review process are available at the following link: