Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 support GPs in diagnosing ovarian cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to supporting the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including ovarian cancer, earlier and faster.
We are improving public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlining referral routes, and increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres. We are also investing an additional £889 million in general practice (GP) to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26.
In October 2024, we invested £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which has enabled the recruitment of over 1,500 recently qualified GPs across England, which will increase the number of appointments delivered and care for thousands of patients.
We are committed to ensuring that GPs have the right training and systems to identify cancer. The Department will continue to look at opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to transform diagnostic performance and ultimately bring down waiting times. The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including for rare and less common cancers. It will aim to speed up diagnosis and treatment and will ensure that all patients have access to the latest treatments and technology.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 (a) rates of early diagnosis, (b) access to treatment and (c) specialist care for people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving the lives of those living with rare diseases, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), by supporting earlier diagnosis, improving access to treatment, and enhancing specialist care. Under the England Rare Diseases Action Plan 2025, we remain focused on delivering against the four key priorities set out in the UK Rare Diseases Framework. The 2025 England Rare Diseases Action Plan was published on 28 February 2025, and is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/england-rare-diseases-action-plan-2025.
To support earlier diagnosis, we are digitalising the National Genomic Test Directory to improve access to genomic testing, and have established eight Genomic Networks of Excellence to standardise services and speed up diagnoses.
We are improving access to treatment for rare conditions like DMD by reforming clinical trial regulations through the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which facilitates the development and approval of new therapies.
Progress is also being made on repurposing existing medicines and advancing new therapies, to expand treatment options. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) plays a key role by making recommendations on which licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service, based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NICE has recently published guidance recommending vamorolone as an option for treating DMD in people aged four years old and older, and the NHS in England is legally required to fund treatment for eligible patients in line with the NICE’s recommendations. The NICE is currently appraising givinostat, which received a conditional marketing authorisation from the MHRA in December 2024 for treating DMD in patients aged six years old and over, to see if it can be recommended for routine funding on the NHS.
To enhance specialist care, NHS England is supporting multi-system disorder clinics to reduce appointments and ease care coordination for families. Research is underway to improve service integration, and five new Rare Disease Collaborative Networks have been launched to strengthen specialist support across the NHS.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 (a) commissioning funding of integrated care boards and (b) other funding provided to hospice services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. ICBs are responsible for commissioning palliative and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance which outlines areas for consideration when commissioning.
Additionally, although not statutory, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published guidance on the service delivery of end of life care. There is an expectation that commissioners and service providers take the guidelines into account when making decisions about how to best meet the needs of their local communities.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing National Health Services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on demand in that ICB area but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.
NHS England has a legal duty to annually assess the performance of each ICB in respect of each financial year and to publish a summary of its findings. This assessment must assess how well the ICB has discharged its functions.
We are, at a national level, also supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. The Government has released the first £25 million tranche of the £100 million of capital funding, with Hospice UK kindly allocating and distributing the money to hospices throughout England. An additional £75 million will be allocated in the coming weeks for use in 2025/26.
Additionally, we are providing £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices for 2025/26. This is a continuation of the funding which until recently was known as the children and young people’s hospice grant. NHS England has now communicated the details of the 2025/26 funding allocation and dissemination to individual hospices.
In February, I met with key palliative and end of life care and hospice stakeholders, with a focus on long-term sector sustainability within the context of our 10-Year Health Plan.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on reviewing the eligibility of unpaid carers for (a) legal aid and (b) advocacy; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing funding for respite breaks for unpaid carers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To be eligible for legal aid, which includes advice, assistance, and advocacy, where applicable, generally an applicant’s legal matter must be in scope for legal aid, and they must pass both a merits and a means test. The merits test, for civil legal aid, and the interests of justice test, for criminal legal aid, assess the merits of the case, including the likelihood of success, and the benefit to the applicant. The means test assesses an applicant’s financial eligibility. Unpaid carers that meet the eligibility criteria are eligible for legal aid.
On the potential merits of increasing funding for respite breaks for unpaid carers, local authorities have duties to support people caring for their family and friends. The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers.
The Better Care Fund includes funding that can be used for carer support, including short breaks and respite services. Local areas determine how the money is best used to support carers, depending on local need and with reference to their statutory responsibilities.
Ministers regularly engage with colleagues in other Government departments on a range of issues.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if will make it his policy that unpaid carers are the central focus of the Independent Commission into Adult Social Care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are launching an independent commission chaired by Baroness Louise Casey into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.
The commission is independent. We expect it will engage unpaid carers as part of a national conversation on what adult social care should achieve for people. This will produce recommendations that address major challenges and drive meaningful reform to better meet the needs of everyone, including unpaid carers.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on the potential impact of the energy price cap increase on unpaid carers.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government believes that our mission to deliver clean power by 2030 is the best way to break our dependence on global fossil fuel markets and protect billpayers permanently. This, combined with our Warm Homes Plan to upgrade millions of homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run, is how we will drive down energy bills and make cold homes a thing of the past.
However, we recognise that we need to support households struggling with bills whilst we transition to clean power by 2030. This is why we are delivering the Warm Home Discount to approximately three million eligible low-income households this winter. On 25 February 2025, we published a consultation on the expansion of the Warm Home Discount, giving more eligible households £150 off their energy bills. These proposals would bring approximately 2.7 million households into the scheme, pushing the total number of households that would receive the discount next winter up to approximately six million.
The Government is continuing to work with Ofgem and energy suppliers to ensure energy bills remain fair and affordable while we transition to clean power by 2030.
Local authorities have duties to support people caring for their family and friends. The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, including support for carers.
Ministers regularly engage with colleagues in other Government departments on a range of issues.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to incentivise dentists to increase NHS appointments in (a) Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency, (b) Hertfordshire and (c) England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency, this is the Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB. ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB is expected to deliver 5,712 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.
Areas which are struggling to recruit and retain NHS dentists can make use of the Golden Hello scheme, which aims to encourage dentists to work in areas where they are needed most.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will provide Integrated Care Boards with detailed guidance on the minimum provision of palliative care required for hospices in their area.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative and end of life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications. Although the statutory guidance does not specifically set out a minimum provision of palliative care required by ICBs, it does state that ICBs have a legal duty to commission palliative and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations.
Whilst the majority of palliative and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including hospices, also play in providing support to people at end of life and to their loved ones.
Most hospices are charitable, independent organisations which receive some statutory funding for providing NHS services. The amount of funding each charitable hospice receives varies both within and between ICB areas. This will vary depending on demand in that ICB area but will also be dependent on the totality and type of palliative and end of life care provision from both NHS and non-NHS services, including charitable hospices, within each ICB area.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department have to ensure that local authorities can fulfil their duties to carers under the Care Act 2014.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is assessing how well local authorities in England are delivering their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, including their duties relating to unpaid carers. This means that the CQC is looking at how local authorities are supporting unpaid carers in their area.
All 153 local authorities in England are being assessed, with ratings and reports available on the CQC’s website. The assessments identify local authorities’ strengths and areas for improvement, facilitating the sharing of good practice, and helping us to target support where it is most needed.
The Government recognises the challenges facing the adult social care system. That is why the Government is launching an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.
The commission will start a national conversation about what working age adults, older people, and their families expect from adult social care, including exploring the needs of unpaid carers, who provide vital care and support.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to provide additional funding for fracture liaison services to help increase the (a) coverage and (b) quality of those services.
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%. They can play a vital role in improving quality of life and increasing the number of years that can be lived in good health.
We remain committed to rolling out FLS across every part of the country by 2030.
In the meantime, we are investing in high-tech DEXA scanners, which are expected to provide an extra 29,000 scans to ensure that people with bone conditions get diagnosed earlier.