Written questions by Rosindell.

Whether his Department plans to introduce further Government advertising to encourage men to (a) speak to their GP about their risk of prostate cancer and (b) seek further testing if they are categorised as high risk.

Too many cancer patients are waiting too long to be treated, and we are determined to change that through faster and earlier diagnosis. We are investing £16 million towards the Prostate Cancer UK led TRANSFORM screening trial seeking to find better methods to catch prostate cancer. NHS England is taking steps to raise awareness of the symptoms of prostate cancer, where there are opportunities to do so.The UK National Screening Committee does not currently recommend screening for prostate cancer as the prostate-specific antigen test does not meet the required accuracy for use in a national screening programme. Current methods offer insufficient benefits in relation to harms caused by overdiagnosis, such as invasive investigative procedures and unnecessary treatment.

If he will make it his policy to encourage the introduction of the Prostate-Specific Antigen blood test on the NHS for men (a) a strong family history of prostate cancer and (b) under 50.

Too many cancer patients are waiting too long to be treated, and we are determined to change that through faster and earlier diagnosis. We are investing £16 million towards the Prostate Cancer UK led TRANSFORM screening trial seeking to find better methods to catch prostate cancer. NHS England is taking steps to raise awareness of the symptoms of prostate cancer, where there are opportunities to do so.The UK National Screening Committee does not currently recommend screening for prostate cancer as the prostate-specific antigen test does not meet the required accuracy for use in a national screening programme. Current methods offer insufficient benefits in relation to harms caused by overdiagnosis, such as invasive investigative procedures and unnecessary treatment.

What steps his Department has taken to improve the availability of GLP-1 drugs to help tackle obesity.

Obesity medicines can be effective for some patients living with obesity when prescribed alongside diet, physical activity, and behavioural support. Exactly what is most appropriate for an individual is down to health care professionals to advise, in discussion with patients, and considering relevant clinical guidance.The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended liraglutide (Saxenda) and semaglutide (Wegovy) as clinically and cost-effective drugs for weight management in adults in the National Health Service in England. NICE guidance includes eligibility criteria and, for some products like Saxenda and Wegovy, a restriction that these treatments should be used within specialist weight management services. NHS organisations are continuing to look at the best way to manage access to these treatments.We are expecting NICE to issue guidance on tirzepatide (Mounjaro) before the end of the year. This could see it being prescribed by general practitioners rather than restricted to specialist services. To manage this, NHS England has proposed a phased rollout to make tirzepatide available in a way that is effective, affordable, and sustainable. Under NHS England’s plan, almost 250,000 people with the greatest clinical need could receive this medicine in the first three years of implementation.Integrated care boards are responsible for arranging the provision of health services within their area in line with local priorities, considering population need and relevant guidance. This includes the commissioning of NHS specialist weight management services. The licensed treatments for weight loss such as Wegovy (semaglutide) and Mounjaro (tirzepatide) are in good supply.

What steps he his taking to use (a) data and (b) AI to improve NHS efficiency.

Data and technology is a key enabling workstream in our 10-Year Health Plan. The NHS is already using and promoting several national tools and datasets to help systems and providers identify and implement efficiency opportunities. The NHS Spend Comparison Service allows NHS procurement teams to identify savings opportunities. Model Hospital is a data-driven improvement tool that provides benchmarked insights across the quality of care, productivity, and organisational culture to identify opportunities for improvement. Model Hospital includes a section on the top ten medicines to support trust progress towards meeting national and trust-level uptake and savings targets by using less costly or biosimilar versions of these drugs.The Federated Data Platform, being rolled-out to trusts and integrated care systems, will allow them to be much more effective in how they handle data to improve outcomes. It brings together information about staff, waiting times, equipment, and medicines, to allow for better planning of how the NHS uses its resources, including supply main management. This was piloted in trusts across England and showed that better use of data could help discharge patients quicker and make better use of operating theatres.My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has also recently announced the intention for there to be a single patient record, including primary care and hospital data, so professionals have the data to make better informed decisions, and deliver more preventative and more efficient health and care.Through the AI in Health and Care Award, the Department has helped accelerate the testing and evaluation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to develop an evidence base to support the commissioning of technologies that are clinically and cost effective. So far, £113 million has been provided to 86 AI technologies, which are live in 99 hospitals across 40% of NHS acute trusts in England, as well as hundreds of Primary Care Networks across the United Kingdom.AI technologies have huge potential in improving efficiency across the NHS by supporting clinicians with faster and more accurate diagnosis, enhancing clinical decision-making about treatment plans, and reducing the administrative burden faced by healthcare staff. The Department and NHS England are developing guidance for the responsible use of these tools and how they can be rolled out to make the day-to-day operations of the NHS more efficient.

What steps he has taken to work with relevant organisations to increase blood donations in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for blood donation in England.Throughout the year, NHSBT produces advertising campaigns to attract new donors, such as the new gift of blood winter stocks campaign for 2024. As part of this work, NHSBT partners with organisations to utilise their expertise and national resources to increase blood donations. Notable examples of these partnerships include Disney, Dalgety Teas, Fulham Football Club, the Civil Service, National Health Service trusts, and integrated care boards.In addition, NHSBT awards funds to community groups through its Community Grants Programme to promote blood donation. This funds community, and faith and belief organisations to drive awareness, understanding, and behaviour change. During the latest funding round, NHSBT awarded funds to 23 organisations to promote blood donation.NHSBT’s physical and digital marketing, and collaboration and partnership, activity takes place across England, including in the Romford constituency.

What the average waiting time for an NHS dental practice is in Romford constituency.

Patients in England are not registered with an NHS dental practice and there is no single waiting list, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly and may operate local waiting list arrangements. The responsibility for commissioning primary care, including dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For Romford constituency, this is NHS Northeast London ICB.

What funding he is providing for people with brain tumours in financial year 2024/25.

As part of the November 2021 Budget and Spending review, the Department allocated £14 billion to NHS England from 2022/23 to 2024/25 specifically for the National Health Service in England to recover elective and cancer care, including for brain tumours. This comprised of £8 billion of resource funding and £5.9 billion of capital funding, as described in the November 2021 Budget and Spending Review.As set out in the recent October Budget, we are providing an additional £1.8 billion to directly support elective recovery and activity in 2024/25, which includes cancer care. This funding is being provided to reduce waiting times and support the NHS to deliver 40,000 additional appointments each week.To support delivery of the operational priorities for cancer, including early diagnosis, NHS England is providing over £250 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances.Further to this, in September 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) announced new research funding opportunities for brain cancer research, spanning both adult and paediatric populations. This includes a national NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium, to ensure the most promising research opportunities are made available to adult and child patients, and a new funding call to generate high quality evidence in brain tumour care, support, and rehabilitation.Lord Darzi’s report has set out the scale of the challenges we face in fixing the NHS in England, and the need to improve cancer waiting time performance and cancer survival. The report will inform the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS in England, including further detail on how we will improve outcomes for cancer.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of vorasdenib for treatment of low-grade gliomas.

It is critical that medicines used in the United Kingdom are safe and effective and as such, medicines cannot be marketed in the UK without a marketing authorisation. These are granted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) which assesses all medicines with regard to their quality, safety, and efficacy. Vorasidenib, sold under the brand name Voranigo, has not been licensed by the MHRA as a treatment for low-grade gliomas. It is the responsibility of the company to apply to the MHRA for the relevant marketing authorisation. Should an application for it be received, the MHRA will consider this accordingly.In England, newly licensed medicines are also appraised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to determine whether they represent a clinically and cost-effective use of National Health Service resources. If the manufacturer of vorasidenib seeks a licence from the MHRA for the treatment of low-grade gliomas, then the NICE will consider it through the Technology Appraisal programme.

Whether the MHRA is considering the approval of vorasidenib for the treatment of low grade gliomas.

It is critical that medicines used in the United Kingdom are safe and effective and as such, medicines cannot be marketed in the UK without a marketing authorisation. These are granted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) which assesses all medicines with regard to their quality, safety, and efficacy. Vorasidenib, sold under the brand name Voranigo, has not been licensed by the MHRA as a treatment for low-grade gliomas. It is the responsibility of the company to apply to the MHRA for the relevant marketing authorisation. Should an application for it be received, the MHRA will consider this accordingly.In England, newly licensed medicines are also appraised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to determine whether they represent a clinically and cost-effective use of National Health Service resources. If the manufacturer of vorasidenib seeks a licence from the MHRA for the treatment of low-grade gliomas, then the NICE will consider it through the Technology Appraisal programme.

What steps his Department is taking to improve dementia (a) diagnosis, (b) research and (c) treatment.

NHS England is committed to improving diagnosis rates and recovering them to the national ambition for two thirds of people with dementia to have a formal diagnosis.NHS England publishes a monthly report detailing the number of people with a recorded dementia diagnosis nationally and in each locality. They also measure the of quality of care such as the proportion of patients who have had a care plan review in the previous 12 months.To reduce variation in diagnosis rates, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ Dementia Intelligence Network has developed a tool for local systems, which includes an assessment of population characteristics such as rurality and socio-economic deprivation. This enables systems to investigate local variation in diagnosis and take informed action to enhance their diagnosis rates. The tool has been released and is available via the NHS Futures Collaboration platform.The United Kingdom has established a rich ecosystem for dementia research, including through the UK Dementia Research Institute and related initiatives such as the Dementia Trials Accelerator which is supported by the Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme, with £120 million of Fovernment funding committed to it. This aims to speed up the development of new treatments for dementia and neurodegenerative conditions by accelerating innovations in biomarkers, clinical trials and implementation.The £49.9 million National Institute for Health and Care Research Dementia Trials Network will deliver a coordinated network of early phase dementia trial sites to test for potential treatments.To prepare for the new generation of dementia treatments, NHS England is working closely with regulators to ensure that arrangements are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended treatments as soon as possible.

How much funding his Department has provided for the early detection of breast cancer in the 2024-25 financial year.

Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including breast cancer, is a priority for the Government. There are a number of National Health Service initiatives and funding streams across the NHS in England that support the early detection of breast cancer, and many organisations across the health service are involved. As a consequence, NHS England does not hold all the information on the initiatives and funding streams in 2024/25 as they are split across many budgets. Integrated care boards, supported by Cancer Alliances, provide funding for symptomatic pathways.The NHS Breast Screening Programme is funded via a portion of the overall £1.8 billion funding across public health services, including NHS screening and vaccination, child health information services, wider health and justice and armed forces.

Whether he plans to take steps with NHS England to expand access to indication-specific pricing agreements.

As part of the 2024 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth, NHS England committed to undertake two consultations on amendments to the NHS Commercial Framework for New Medicines. The first of these was launched on 31 July 2024 and ran for eight weeks. The proposed amendments would make the framework more explicit about the circumstances in which NHS England will consider indication specific pricing mechanisms. They would also align the framework with the Competition and Markets Authority statement on combination medicines.NHS England and the Department engaged with key stakeholders throughout the consultation period, and NHS England intends to publish an updated NHS Commercial Framework for New Medicines by the end of 2024.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to mandate that fact-of-death is reported to the Office for National Statistics in England within eight days.

There is a legal responsibility to register a death within a five-day time period, from when a medical examiner submits the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) to the registrar. The Office for National Statistics compiles their mortality data from the data taken at registration, which is informed in part by the MCCD. The five-day requirement complements the guidance to medical practitioners that certifying the death should be completed in a timely and efficient manner. However, there are valid cases where, for example, the identification of the cause of death, including where this is ascertained through a coronial investigation, and therefore the registration must take longer, which would be incompatible with a more prescriptive legal timeline.

What steps his Department is taking to (a) encourage screening for and (b) increase the rate of early diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Screening for prostate cancer is currently not recommended by the UK National Screening Committees (UK NSC). This is because of the inaccuracy of the current best test Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). A PSA-based screening programme could harm men as some of them would be diagnosed with a cancer that would not have caused them problems during their life. This would lead to additional tests and treatments which can also have harmful side effects.The Department has invested £16 million in the TRANSFORM trial which seeks to find ways to diagnose prostate cancer as early as possible. This trial will compare the most promising tests to look for prostate cancer in men that do not have symptoms and aim to address disparities in early detection rates across different groups.We are also working with NHS England to support the National Health Service to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard for cancer to be diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days from an urgent suspected cancer referral. This includes introducing best practice timed pathways for prostate cancer to streamline diagnostic pathways and speed up diagnoses.