Every parliamentary written question tabled by Ben Goldsborough this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 1–13 of 13 · Department of Health and Social Care
What steps he is taking to improve community healthcare in rural areas.
The Government’s 10 Year Health Plan commits to three big shifts which includes increasingly moving services away from centralised hospitals into the wider community. Integrated care boards are responsible for the planning and commissioning of health services. In doing so ICBs must take into account the needs of their local population, which includes meeting the healthcare needs of their rural populations.
Whether his Department plans to (a) alter and (b) mitigate the National Institute for Care and Excellence's downgrading of terminal cancer to moderately severe.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has not classified terminal cancer as moderately severe. The NICE is an independent body and is responsible for developing the methods and processes it uses to evaluate whether new medicines should be recommended for routine National Health Service funding.In developing recommendations on whether medicines represent a clinically and cost effective use of NHS resources, NICE is able to apply a weighting that recognises the additional value that society places on treatments for severe conditions. The weighting that is applied is calculated for each appraisal based on information on the expected shortfall in life expectancy and quality of life of people with the condition taking into account existing treatment options. NICE has concluded for several appraisals of medicines for advanced cancer that a weighting should be applied based on the severity of the condition. The latest data for appraisals published up to September 2025, show that NICE has recommended 84.8% of treatments for advanced cancers since the severity modifier was introduced compared to 69.1% under its previous methods.NICE is monitoring the impact of the changes made following the methods review and has committed to considering modular updates to its methods and processes in the future. NICE has also commissioned research to gather further evidence on societal preferences that will inform future methods reviews.
Whether his Department plans to take steps to ensure Enhertu remains available on the NHS.
Decisions on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service in England are made on the basis of recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) following an evaluation of a treatment’s costs and benefits. These are very difficult decisions to make, and it is important that they are made independently and on the basis of the available evidence.NICE has recommended Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) for use through the Cancer Drugs Fund for the treatment of HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic breast cancer after one or more anti-HER 2 treatments and for treating HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic breast cancer after two or more anti-HER2 therapies. Enhertu is now funded for eligible patients in England through the Cancer Drugs Fund in line with NICE’s recommendations. NICE will consider the evidence collected on the use of Enhertu through the Cancer Drugs Fund into account in making recommendations for the NHS on whether it should be routinely funded by the NHS.NICE published guidance in July 2024 on the use of Enhertu for the treatment of HER-2 low metastatic and unresectable breast cancer and was unfortunately unable to recommend it for routine NHS funding.
What proportion of eligible families are receiving support through the Healthy Start scheme in South Norfolk constituency.
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) operates the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department. Monthly figures for the number of people on the digital Healthy Start scheme are published on the NHS Healthy Start website, which is available at the following link:https://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/healthcare-professionals/The NHSBSA does not hold data on the number of families receiving Healthy Start and does not currently hold data on the number of people eligible for Healthy Start. In addition, the NHSBSA does not hold data on local constituencies. The number of people on the digital scheme in the local authority of South Norfolk as of 23 May 2025 is 423.
What steps his Department is taking to provide safety and health screenings for new arrivals to the secure estate.
Every prisoner, whether they are new into prison or have been transferred between establishments, undergoes a health screen upon arrival. This is in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance and covers immediate health problems, which includes identifying mental health or substance misuse issues, and is followed by a referral onto the appropriate health team within the prison estate, if necessary.
How many secure mental health beds were available on the secure estate in each of the last ten financial years.
The data requested is not centrally held nor published by NHS England.
What steps his Department is taking to ensure that all prisoners receive an initial health screening when arriving on the secure estate.
Every prisoner, whether they are new into prison or have been transferred between establishments, undergoes a health screen upon arrival. This is in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance and covers immediate health problems, which includes identifying mental health or substance misuse issues, and is followed by a referral onto the appropriate health team within the prison estate, if necessary.
What steps he is taking to improve access to NHS dentistry in (a) South Norfolk constituency and (b) Norfolk.
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 the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, 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 South Norfolk constituency, this is the NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB.
What the average waiting time was in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital emergency department in each of the last ten years.
The data is not available in the format requested. Provisional data for the median average time spent at National Health Service trust emergency departments is published by NHS England each month, and is available at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/provisional-accident-and-emergency-quality-indicators-for-england
With reference to the Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, what estimate he has made of the amount of funding that will be allocated to NHS services in Norfolk in each of the n
At the Autumn Budget, the Government announced a £22.6 billion increase in day-to-day health spending and a £3.1 billion increase in the capital budget over this year and next. Phase 2 of the Spending Review will consider overall funding for subsequent ye...
What steps his Department is taking to ensure that people facing homelessness are discharged safely from hospital.
The Department is committed to promoting safe and timely discharge for people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness to appropriate accommodation. Every acute hospital has access to a care transfer hub to manage discharge for people with more complex n...
What the average waiting times were for (a) ADHD and (b) autism assessments in each year since 2010.
There is, at present, no single, established dataset that can be used to monitor waiting times for the assessment or treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) nationally. The National Institute for Health and Care Research has commissioned a research project to provide initial insights into local ADHD diagnosis waiting times data collection. We are also supporting a taskforce that NHS England is establishing to look at ADHD service provision, announced in March 2024. The taskforce will bring together expertise from across a broad range of sectors, including the National Health Service, education, and justice, to better understand the challenges affecting people with ADHD. NHS England is also working to develop a national ADHD data improvement plan.In regard to autism, waiting times are published quarterly by NHS England, and include information about the waiting time from referral to a first care contact, since 2019. Further information is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/autism-statisticsThe following table shows the number of people with an open referral, the number of people with an open referral and a care contact, and the median waiting time in days of patients with an open suspected autism referral, where their first care contact was within the year, for each of the last five years:YearPeople with an open referralPeople with an open referral and a care contactMedian waiting time between referral and first contact in days2019/2053,85712,6021282020/2187,65415,5402262021/22130,06022,6082142022/23199,97531,4632102023/24280,33839,371296Source: Mental Health Services Dataset. Notes:care contact is used as a proxy for an assessment, and data could only be provided from 2019/20 as this is the first full year in which the methodology was agreed, and the data quality of the fields used in the autism pathway was sufficient; andgiven autism data has only been published since 2019/20, it should be expected that data quality would improve over time, and as such, some of the change seen will be the result of data quality improvements.
How many families of children (a) have applied, (b) are waiting and (c) have been issued with a neurodevelopmental services assessment in each local authority area in each of the last five years.
The information is not available in the format requested.