Written questions by Hunt.

What steps his Department is taking to improve access to clinical trials for patients with pancreatic cancer.

The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with pancreatic cancer, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.The Department funds research and research infrastructure through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which supports National Health Service patients, the public, and NHS organisations across England to participate in high-quality research, including clinical trials into cancers.NIHR provides an online service called 'Be Part of Research', which promotes participation in health and social care research by allowing users to search for relevant studies and register their interest.The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients across the country. It will ensure that more patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and to clinical trials.The Government also supports the Rare Cancers Private Members Bill. The bill will make it easier for clinical trials, on for example pancreatic cancer, to take place in England, by ensuring the patient population can be more easily contacted by researchers.

What steps he is taking to (a) prioritise research into pancreatic cancer and (b) encourage innovations in earlier diagnosis.

The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and in 2024/25, spent £141.6 million on cancer research, signalling its high priority. This includes studies that focus specifically on pancreatic cancer as well as studies that are relevant to or include pancreatic cancer. For example, between the 2020/21 to 2024/25 financial years, the NIHR committed £1.5 million to specific pancreatic cancer studies.One instance of this is ongoing research funded by the NIHR which aims into improve the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer by utilising artificial intelligence as well as reducing instances of missed cancer.The NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure, including facilities, services, and the research workforce, supported the delivery of 160 pancreatic cancer research studies and enabled over 8,200 people to participate in potentially life-changing research during this time period. This includes support for the PemOla trial, which is the first to explore using precision immunotherapies to treat pancreatic cancer.The Office for Life Sciences’ Cancer Healthcare Goals programme aims to maximise and direct global industrial investment for the development and acceleration of new cancer diagnostic and therapeutic technologies and devices in the United Kingdom through: providing research investments to support the development of innovations in the early stages of the development pathway and; supporting industry to accelerate cancer diagnostic and therapeutic technologies and devices in the latter stages of development into the National Health Service.The programme launched the £10.9 million NIHR i4i Cancer Healthcare Goals: Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation Call. This has funded six projects which are developing breakthrough technologies that can increase the proportion of cancers which are detected earlier in the disease course and/or target health inequalities in cancer diagnosis.This includes the miONCO-Dx multi-cancer early detection test, developed by XGenera, which can identify 12 of the most lethal and common cancers, including pancreatic cancer, at even the earliest stages from just 100 microlitres of blood. This technology is currently testing the diagnostic test accuracy on over 20,000 patient samples with promising early results.The NIHR continues to encourage and welcome high quality funding applications into pancreatic cancer.

When he plans to publish the report into the cost of clinical negligence being prepared by David Lock KC.

The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC is providing expert policy advice on the rising legal costs of clinical negligence and how we can improve patients’ experience of claims. The review is ongoing, following initial advice to ministers and the recent National Audit Office’s report.The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area. No decisions on policy have been taken at this point, and the Government will provide an update on the work done and next steps in due course.

When he plans to announce the funding support for children’s hospices for 2026-27 onwards.

Children and young people’s hospices do incredible work to support seriously ill children and their families and loved ones when they need it most, and we recognise the incredibly tough pressures they are facing.We are providing £26 million in 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’s Hospice Grant.I can also now confirm the continuation of this vital funding for the three years of the next spending review period, 2026/27 to 2028/29 inclusive. This funding will see circa £26 million, adjusted for inflation, allocated to children’s and young people’s hospices in England each year, via their local ICBs on behalf of NHS England, as happened in 2024/25 and 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £80 million over the next three years.This revenue funding is intended to be spent by hospices to provide high-quality care and support for the children and the families they care for, either in the hospice or in the community, including in children's homes. They can, for example, use this funding for providing respite care for children who have high health needs, by providing physiotherapy or occupational therapy, or by providing 24/7 nursing support for a child at the end of their life.We are also supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care.

When he will implement the recommended compensation schemes for victims of (a) pelvic mesh implants, (b) sodium valproate, and (c) Primodos made by the Hughes report.

The Government is carefully considering the valuable work done by the Patient Safety Commissioner and the resulting Hughes Report, which set out options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh. This is a complex area of work, involving several Government departments, and it is important that we get this right. We will be providing an update to the Patient Safety Commissioner’s report at the earliest opportunity.The Patient Safety Commissioner was not asked to look at redress for hormone pregnancy tests as part of her recent report. The causal link between the use of hormone pregnancy tests during pregnancy and adverse outcomes in pregnancy has not been demonstrated. However, we are committed to reviewing any new scientific evidence that comes to light.We remain hugely sympathetic to the families who believe that they or their children have suffered following the use of hormone pregnancy tests.

When his Department plans to publish its final response to its Duty of candour review.

The Government is supportive of the review it inherited into the effectiveness and implementation of the statutory duty of candour for health and social care providers.We are clear that the duty needs to act as a catalyst for providers to improve openness and commit to a learning culture. The aim of the review is to examine how all providers and their leaders can act upon that duty consistently and effectively.We are using the findings of our consultation on manager regulation, which closed on 18 February 2025, to help inform the final response to the review on the statutory duty of candour. The Government is preparing its consultation response, and we intend to publish the final duty of candour review report once the consultation response has been published.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure the timely publication of the 2023-24 report by NHS England on learning from lives and deaths: people with a learning disability and autistic people.

NHS England commissions Kings College London and its partners to analyse data from the publication, Learning from Lives and Deaths: People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People. The annual report is published by Kings College London, which is currently working on the next annual report and NHS England advises it will publish this shortly. The last report was published in November 2023 and is available at the following link:https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/assets/fans-dept/leder-2022-v2.0.pdf

What proportion of NHS Secondary Care Trusts are reporting all of the legally required elements of the Learning from Deaths national guidance.

This information is not collected centrally. All National Health Service trusts, apart from NHS ambulance trusts, are required to meet the reporting requirements in The National Health Service (Quality Accounts) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 relating to na...

With reference to recommendation 44 of the Report of the Morecambe Bay Investigation, published in March 2015, what steps his Department has taken to establish a proper framework on which future in

The Government is committed to ensuring that all women and babies received safe, personalised, equitable, and compassionate care. We are determined to learn lessons from inquiries and investigations.The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch became an ind...

Whether the investigation into maternity incidents at Gloucestershire Hospitals Foundation Trust has started.

The trust has committed to a thematic review of all neonatal and maternal deaths since 2019. This has started for neonatal deaths but not for maternal deaths, due to delays identifying an external assessor.The trust is engaging with the NHS England South ...

If he will launch a new National Maternity Safety Ambition.

The National Maternity Safety Ambition was launched in 2015 and will end in 2025. As part of our consultation on the 10-year health plan, we will first consider the best ways to improve maternity safety so that the NHS has the tools it needs to deliver im...