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 improve the geographical spread of cancer clinical trial sites to enable equitable access for teenagers and young adults.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is committed to maximising the United Kingdom’s potential to lead the world in clinical research, with the aim of ensuring that all patients, including teenagers and young adults with cancer, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), funded by the Department, funds research and research infrastructure, which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research, including clinical research for teenagers and young adults with cancer.

This research infrastructure includes a network of Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres, co-funded by the NIHR, Cancer Research UK, and the Little Princess Trust, which work across the whole of the UK, bringing together world-leading laboratory and clinical researchers to test new treatments for adults and children with cancer.

The NIHR Research Delivery Network (RDN) supports patients, the public, and health and care organisations across England to participate in high-quality research. The RDN consists of 12 regional RDNs, which support sites across England to deliver clinical research, including clinical research for teenagers and young adults with cancer.

The newly designated Commercial Research Delivery Centres (CRDCs) will build further capacity in delivering commercial clinical research. There are 21 CRDCs spread across the UK, and one of the CRDCs, based at the Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, is dedicated to the delivery of commercial clinical trials for treating children and young people.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to ensure that pensioners who are earning below £11,400 are able to obtain winter fuel allowance.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

Pension Credit provides extra money to help with living costs for people over State Pension age and on a low income. The Guarantee Credit part of Pension Credit tops up a person’s other income and also prompts recipients to receive a Winter Fuel Payment to a minimum of £227.10 per week for a single person and £346.60 per week for couples with extra amounts paid in respect of severe disability, caring responsibilities and certain housing costs. We want to ensure as many people as possible who are entitled to this support receive it, which is why the Government has taken action to maximise the take-up of Pension Credit by undertaking the biggest ever awareness campaign. This has included promoting Pension Credit on television, radio, social media as well as directly contacting pensioners who we think could be eligible alongside working with stakeholders and partners.

The latest Pension Credit applications and awards statistics were published on 27 February. Details can be found at: Pension Credit applications and awards: February 2025 - GOV.UK.

The statistics show that the Department received 235,000 Pension Credit applications in the 30 weeks since the Winter Fuel Payment announcement – an 81% increase on the comparable period in 2023/24 and made 117,800 new Pension Credit awards – a 64% increase or 45,800 extra awards on the comparable period in 2023/24.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has consulted with independent retailers on the development of the new Business Growth service.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

My department is working closely with independent retailers and the wider business community on the design of the Business Growth Service. We’ve held roundtables and consultation events across the country, in partnership with local organisations, to hear directly from entrepreneurs and small business owners about the support they need to grow.

My department continues to engage regularly with retailers through key trade associations, and feedback will remain central to how the service evolves. Our goal is to build a service shaped by business, for business.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what progress he has made towards publishing the Small Business Command Paper.

Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government will publish its SME Strategy later this year. The Strategy will set out the Government’s ambition to champion entrepreneurship, create an environment for SMEs to thrive and support them in their growth ambition.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential risk of e-bike battery fires caused by products manufactured outside the (a) UK and (b) EU.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Office for Product Safety and Standards leads a programme of activity to tackle the fire risks from unsafe lithium-ion e-bike batteries. All e-bikes and lithium-ion batteries placed on the UK market must be safe and producers are responsible for ensuring their products comply with the law. Last year, the Government published statutory guidelines on lithium-ion batteries for e-bikes, setting out the safety mechanisms they must contain.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many incidents of battery fires on (a) converted and (b) non-converted e-bikes were reported to the Office for Product Safety and Standards in the last 12 months for which data are available.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Office for Product Safety and Standards received reports of 161 UK e-bike fires in 2023, of which 46% were post-market conversions. Data for 2024 is being complied and will be published in due course.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will take steps to ensure the equitable geographic distribution of health research funding.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funds health research across the UK, primarily through their Medical Research Council (MRC). The UKRI place toolkit underpins MRC’s vision to encourage and support excellent and impactful research, wherever it is found in the UK. MRC recognises the importance of place for strengthening capacity across the UK, for the long-term benefit of UK science. MRC draws on and fosters talent, research communities and capacity from across the UK to address major health challenges and the recently published MRC Place Framework sets out MRC’s principles for place and how it is used to guide decision making.

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 support research into Adrenal cancer through (a) funding, (b) clinical trials and (c) collaboration with academic institutions.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), with cancer as one of the largest areas of spend at over £133 million in 2023/24, reflecting its high priority. The NIHR funds research and research infrastructure, which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including research into adrenal cancer. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.

The NIHR also welcomes applications for training awards from the clinical and non-clinical academic workforce conducting research into any aspect of human health, including adrenal cancer. The Department is the United Kingdom’s largest funder of clinical academic training, working with academic institutions and the wider health and care system to deliver a comprehensive research career pathway for the full range of clinicians.

The Department is committed to working with delivery partners, including the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, and other key stakeholders, to achieve the common aim of creating a faster, more efficient, more accessible, and more innovative clinical research delivery system. We expect these efforts to attract more commercial investment in clinical research and yield a broad and diverse portfolio of clinical trials in the UK, so that we can provide innovative treatment options for patients, including those with adrenal cancer.

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 (a) early diagnosis and (b) specialist treatment pathways for patients with Adrenal Cancer.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government recognises that diagnosing and treating rare cancers, including adrenal cancer, can be difficult due to their non-specific symptoms, which are often shared with other more common conditions.

To support earlier diagnosis, the National Health Service is improving referral and diagnostic pathways, including the use of non-specific symptom pathways for patients whose symptoms, such as unexplained weight loss, fatigue, or abdominal discomfort, do not clearly align with a single cancer type, but which may indicate a rare cancer like adrenal cancer. NHS England has also expanded general practice direct access to diagnostic tests, enabling faster investigation of concerning symptoms.

We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the NHS to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners. Community diagnostic centres will also help reduce the number of patients waiting too long for a confirmed cancer diagnosis, and will ensure capacity is available for both common and rare cancers.

To improve access to timely treatment, the NHS is delivering an additional 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week. The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will set out further actions to improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with rare and less common cancers. It will focus on speeding up diagnosis and treatment, and ensuring access to the latest treatments and technologies for all.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England plans to take to improve (a) awareness and (b) training for (i) GPs and (ii) frontline healthcare professionals to better (A) recognize and (B) refer suspected cases of adrenal cancer.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

General practitioners (GPs) are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge, including on adrenal cancer, remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.

The training curriculum for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), and has to meet the standards set by the General Medical Council. The RCGP provides a number of resources on cancer prevention, diagnosis, and care for GPs, relevant for the primary care setting.

NHS England supports initiatives aimed at enhancing early cancer diagnosis and awareness among healthcare professionals. These initiatives include GatewayC, an online education platform providing modules on early cancer diagnosis for primary care professionals, and the Aspirant Cancer Career and Education Development programme, designed to improve cancer-related knowledge and capabilities across the non-medical workforce. These measures aim to equip GPs and frontline professionals with the skills necessary to identify and act on potential cancer symptoms, including those of rare cancers such as adrenal cancer.

Found: 18 (94.4%) Jacob Collier (Labour, Burton and Uttoxeter) (added 3 Mar 2025) 2 of 4 (50.0%) Paul Davies

Found: Gelderd Clive Lewis Sarah Edwards Sadik Al-Hassan Dan Aldridge Alison Bennett Lee Barron Paul Davies

Found: Gelderd Clive Lewis Sarah Edwards Sadik Al-Hassan Dan Aldridge Alison Bennett Lee Barron Paul Davies

Found: Abbott Kim Johnson Paula Barker Kirith Entwistle Abtisam Mohamed Debbie Abrahams Cat Eccles Paul Davies

Found: Abbott Kim Johnson Paula Barker Kirith Entwistle Abtisam Mohamed Debbie Abrahams Cat Eccles Paul Davies

Found: Paul Davies MS Welsh ConservativesAI and the Welsh Economy: Can Welsh androids dream of electric sheep

<p>Thank you very much for that question, Paul Davies, and thank you also for that question and relating it to your own experience—your own lived experience—and also referring to your constituents who also would clearly benefit, as will all those in terms of early detection of cancer and illnesses, serious illness of that kind. So, this is something that I will draw to the attention of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, because I think we can be very proud of our all-Wales genomic service and the genetic testing, which is so important in terms of early detection. So, I'm sure the Cabinet Secretary will want to respond to update on access.</p>

<p>Thank you for your response, Cabinet Secretary. I'm also grateful for your earlier response to my colleague Paul Davies on a separate matter. But on this particular issue, as chair of the cross-party group on faith, I've received concerns regarding inconsistencies in the way that SACRE groups receive professional support across Wales, with particular concerns around the role of those regional school improvement services that you had a discussion with Cefin Campbell about earlier, given the changes that are taken place at that middle tier.</p>
<p>I know that you think it's important that SACRE groups are able to appropriately carry out their duties in looking at the teachings of religious education and collective worship in schools, and I know that you, with me, agree that when that is done well, it benefits children across Wales. So, I wonder, in the months ahead, what your plan is to make sure that those SACREs in local authority areas across Wales receive and have access to the guidance and support that they need to do their work and their duties effectively.</p>

<p>Thank you very much, Paul Davies, for raising this and the very regrettable reports from your constituents. I'm sure that you have followed those up with the Welsh ambulance trust directly. I can't recall whether it was raised last week, when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care had his oral Senedd questions, but clearly this is a matter that is now on record and will be drawn to the attention of the Cabinet Secretary.&nbsp;</p>