Written questions by Snowden.

What assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a national screening programme for pancreatic cancer.

In the United Kingdom, national screening programmes are introduced based on the recommendations of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent scientific advisory committee which advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries on all aspects of population and targeted screening and which supports implementation. The UK NSC received a submission via its 2024 annual call process to consider a new screening programme for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. The UK NSC decided to explore this proposal further, and the next step will be an evidence mapping process. Further information on the annual call process can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-nsc-annual-call-submitting-a-screening-proposal/uk-nsc-annual-call-how-to-submit-a-proposal

How many pancreatic cancer specialist nurses are employed in the NHS in England.

The Department does not hold information on the number of full time equivalent pancreatic cancer specialist nurses employed in the National Health Service in England.The Nursing and Midwifery Council does not require any specific post-registration education programme to be undertaken in order for a registered nurse to become a pancreatic cancer specialist nurse. Employers develop specialist roles to meet community and service need locally.

Pursuant to the Answer of 10 July 2025 to Question 63143 on Defibrillators, if he will have discussions with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade to ensure defibrillator manufacturers are encouraged to signpost buyers to register new devices with the Circuit network.

The Department for Business and Trade is not involved in the management or regulation of defibrillator manufacturers.The Circuit is the independently operated national automated external defibrillator (AED) database, developed by a partnership of the British Heart Foundation, the National Health Service, the Resuscitation Council UK, and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives. The Circuit provides a national database of where defibrillators can be found so that ambulance services can quickly identify the nearest defibrillator.To improve patients' survival rates following out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, the Government committed to improving access to AEDs in public spaces and to reducing inequalities in access to these life saving devices. Following the depletion of the existing AED Fund, launched in September 2023, the Government approved a further £500,000 in August 2024 to fulfil existing applications to the fund.Applications to the fund were allocated based on where there is the greatest need, for instance remote communities with extended ambulance response times, places with high footfall and high population densities, hotspots for cardiac arrest including sporting venues and venues with vulnerable people, and deprived areas.

What the average waiting time is for ambulances in the Lancashire Ambulance Service area.

NHS England publishes monthly official statistics for ambulance service performance. Lancashire is served by North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS). The following table shows the most recent average response times for the NWAS, in hours, minutes, and seconds, broken down by category:Category namePerformance in June 2025Category 1 average00:07:15Category 2 average00:25:39Category 3 average01:42:46Category 4 average01:56:14Source: Ambulance Management Information dataset, available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/ambulance-management-information/

What steps he is taking to help reduce the number of mental health conditions among young people in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire.

The NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board is responsible for commissioning services to meet the mental health needs of young people in Fylde and across Lancashire.Nationally, the Government is investing an extra £688 million this year to transform mental health services by hiring more staff, delivering more early interventions, and getting waiting lists down so young people can have the best possible start in life. We will fulfil our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 staff across child and adult mental health services by the end of this Parliament, and 6,700 of these extra workers have been recruited since July 2024.We also want to intervene much earlier to support better outcomes for children and young people. That is why the 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will work with schools and colleges to better identify and meet children's mental health needs by expanding mental health support teams in schools to cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30 and by embedding mental health support in the new Young Futures hubs, to ensure there is no 'wrong front door' for people seeking help. At the end of March 2025, 55% of pupils and learners in Lancashire were covered by a mental health support team.Additionally, we are continuing to provide top-up funding of £7 million to 24 existing early support hubs, including hubs in Chorley and Blackburn, to expand their services and to take part in an ongoing evaluation of these services in 2025/26. This funding will enable the supported hubs to deliver at least 10,000 additional mental health and wellbeing interventions, so that more children and young people are supported.

What steps he is taking to increase access to the drug tofersen for people with SOD1 MND.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.NICE has selected tofersen for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by SOD1 gene mutations as a topic for guidance development through its Highly Specialised Technology (HST) programme. The HST programme appraises medicines for the treatment of very rare, and often very severe diseases and evaluates whether they can be considered a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources. NICE is working with the company to confirm timelines for this evaluation.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the severity modifier introduced by NICE in 2022 on access to new treatments for secondary breast cancer.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for the methods and processes that it uses in the development of its recommendations. The severity modifier was introduced in January 2022 as part of a number of changes intended to make NICE’s methods fairer, faster, and more consistent.NICE carried out a review of the implementation of the severity modifier in September 2024 and found that it is operating as intended. Since the introduction of the severity modifier in December 2022, the proportion of positive cancer recommendations is higher, at 84.8%, than with the end-of-life modifier it replaced, at 75%, and the proportion of positive recommendations for advanced cancer treatments is also higher, at 81.1% compared to 69%.Since January 2022, NICE has recommended all but one of the treatments for breast cancer that it has assessed. These treatments are now available to eligible National Health Service patients.NICE has commissioned research to gather further evidence on societal preferences that will inform future method reviews.

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the availability of Tofersen across NHS trusts in England; and what steps he is taking to ensure equitable geographic access.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. The NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.NICE has selected tofersen for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis caused by SOD1 gene mutations as a topic for guidance development through its Highly Specialised Technology (HST) programme. The HST programme appraises medicines for the treatment of very rare, and often very severe diseases and evaluates whether they can be considered a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources. NICE is working with the company to confirm timelines for this evaluation.

Whether NHS England provides funding to GP practices to carry out blood tests requested by (a) hospitals and (b) specialists.

We understand the pressures that general practices (GPs) are facing, which is why we are investing an additional £889 million into GPs, to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, in 2025/26. The independent review body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) has recommended an uplift of 4% to the pay ranges for salaried GPs, and to GP contractor pay. As with last year, we are accepting the DDRB’s pay recommendation, and we will provide a 4% uplift to the pay elements of the GP Contract on a consolidated basis, on top of the provisional 2.8% uplift already provided, to bring it up to 4%. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes. The Red Tape Challenge, launched by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and NHS England’s Chief Executive Officer, will also aim to address challenges seen by services between primary and secondary care interface. This work and investment will support the move from the hospital to the community, one of the three fundamental shifts set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. Local enhanced services, such as blood tests, are negotiated and agreed locally, and are commissioned by integrated care boards to fit the needs of the local population. GPs can choose whether or not they would like to participate in directly providing these services. These services can vary in scope and funding across the country. Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are supporting one of the Government’s top priorities for health, to shift care from the hospital to the community. CDCs offer local populations a wide range of diagnostic tests, including phlebotomy, closer to home and allow for greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, whilst also reducing pressure on the system. We will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new ones, as well as increasing the number of CDCs offering services 12 hours per day, seven days a week.

Whether his Department has received representations from GP practices on workload for non-primary care blood tests.

We understand the pressures that general practices (GPs) are facing, which is why we are investing an additional £889 million into GPs, to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, in 2025/26. The independent review body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) has recommended an uplift of 4% to the pay ranges for salaried GPs, and to GP contractor pay. As with last year, we are accepting the DDRB’s pay recommendation, and we will provide a 4% uplift to the pay elements of the GP Contract on a consolidated basis, on top of the provisional 2.8% uplift already provided, to bring it up to 4%. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes. The Red Tape Challenge, launched by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and NHS England’s Chief Executive Officer, will also aim to address challenges seen by services between primary and secondary care interface. This work and investment will support the move from the hospital to the community, one of the three fundamental shifts set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. Local enhanced services, such as blood tests, are negotiated and agreed locally, and are commissioned by integrated care boards to fit the needs of the local population. GPs can choose whether or not they would like to participate in directly providing these services. These services can vary in scope and funding across the country. Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are supporting one of the Government’s top priorities for health, to shift care from the hospital to the community. CDCs offer local populations a wide range of diagnostic tests, including phlebotomy, closer to home and allow for greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, whilst also reducing pressure on the system. We will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new ones, as well as increasing the number of CDCs offering services 12 hours per day, seven days a week.

What recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of GP surgeries in Lancashire no longer conducting (a) hospital and (b) specialist-requested blood tests on patients.

We understand the pressures that general practices (GPs) are facing, which is why we are investing an additional £889 million into GPs, to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, in 2025/26. The independent review body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) has recommended an uplift of 4% to the pay ranges for salaried GPs, and to GP contractor pay. As with last year, we are accepting the DDRB’s pay recommendation, and we will provide a 4% uplift to the pay elements of the GP Contract on a consolidated basis, on top of the provisional 2.8% uplift already provided, to bring it up to 4%. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes. The Red Tape Challenge, launched by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and NHS England’s Chief Executive Officer, will also aim to address challenges seen by services between primary and secondary care interface. This work and investment will support the move from the hospital to the community, one of the three fundamental shifts set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. Local enhanced services, such as blood tests, are negotiated and agreed locally, and are commissioned by integrated care boards to fit the needs of the local population. GPs can choose whether or not they would like to participate in directly providing these services. These services can vary in scope and funding across the country. Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are supporting one of the Government’s top priorities for health, to shift care from the hospital to the community. CDCs offer local populations a wide range of diagnostic tests, including phlebotomy, closer to home and allow for greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, whilst also reducing pressure on the system. We will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new ones, as well as increasing the number of CDCs offering services 12 hours per day, seven days a week.

Pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2025 to Question 60968 on Insomnia: Lancashire, what data his Department holds on the number of people who accessed NHS Talking Therapies in relation to chronic insomnia in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire in the last five years.

The following table shows the number if patients referred to NHS Talking Therapies with insomnia in Fylde, and the number of patients referred with insomnia to NHS Talking Therapies in Lancashire, from 2021 to 2025:YearPatients referred with insomnia in FyldePatients referred with insomnia in Lancashire2021**2022**2023**2024*152025*5Source: Talking Therapies Dataset, NHS EnglandNotes:data for 2025 is from January to April; andthe data has been rounded and suppressed in accordance with standard NHS Talking Therapies suppression rules, which means that values between zero and four are suppressed, represented by an asterisk, and other values are rounded to the nearest five at sub national level.

Pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2025 to Question 60968 on Insomnia: Lancashire, whether his Department has had discussions with Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board on its insomnia services.

No such discussions have taken place. Information on how to access NHS Talking Therapies services is available from general practitioners, National Health Service mental health providers, voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations, and at the following link:https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/

Pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2025 to 60968 on Insomnia: Lancashire, what steps his Department is taking to promote awareness of self-referral options to NHS talking therapies for people with insomnia.

No such discussions have taken place. Information on how to access NHS Talking Therapies services is available from general practitioners, National Health Service mental health providers, voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations, and at the following link:https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making frontline health and social care workers eligible for the autumn 2025 covid-19 vaccination programme.

The Government is committed to protecting those most vulnerable to COVID-19 through vaccination as guided by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). On 13 November 2024, the JCVI published advice on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for spring 2025, autumn 2025, and spring 2026. This advice is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-in-2025-and-spring-2026-jcvi-advice/jcvi-statement-on-covid-19-vaccination-in-2025-and-spring-2026On 26 June 2025, the Government accepted the JCVI’s advice that for autumn 2025, a COVID-19 vaccination should be offered to adults aged 75 years old and over, residents in care homes for older adults, and the immunosuppressed aged six months old and over.In line with JCVI’s advice, frontline health and social care workers (HSCWs) and staff working in care homes for older adults will not be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination under the national programme for autumn 2025. This is following an extensive review by the JCVI of the scientific evidence surrounding the impact of vaccination on the transmission of the virus from HSCWs to patients, protection of HSCWs against symptoms of the disease, and staff sickness absences.In the current era of high population immunity to COVID-19, additional COVID-19 doses provide very limited, if any, protection against infection and any subsequent onward transmission of infection. For HSCWs, this means that COVID-19 vaccination likely now has only a very limited impact on reducing staff sickness absence. Therefore, the focus of the programme is now on those at greatest risk of serious disease and who are therefore most likely to benefit from vaccination. HSCWs who are otherwise eligible, for example because of their own health conditions, will continue to be offered the vaccine as part of the National Health Service programme.

Whether his Department has made an estimate of the cost of hiring new staff due to changes in employer National Insurance contributions for GP practices in (a) Fylde constituency and (b) Lancashire.

We have made necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the 2024 Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise was implemented in April 2025.General practice providers are valued independent contractors. Each year, we consult with the sector both about what services they provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract. Operating costs, such as staffing, for these providers are considered as a part of this process.

What processes are in place to ensure that veterans self‑identifying in NHS primary care settings are effectively referred to VALOUR centres.

In May 2025, the Government announced VALOUR, a new programme which will establish VALOUR support centres and improve the coordination of services at a national, regional, and local level, making it easier for veterans to access the care and support available to them.NHS England is working with the Office for Veterans’ Affairs to develop processes to ensure that all National Health Service general practices are made aware of VALOUR centres, how referrals will work, and how veterans are able to access them.

What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's policies on maintaining the defibrillator network.

The Department does not maintain the automated external defibrillator (AED) network.The Circuit is the independently operated national AED database, developed by a partnership of the British Heart Foundation, the National Health Service, the Resuscitation Council UK, and the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives. The Circuit provides a national database of where defibrillators can be found so that ambulance services can quickly identify the nearest defibrillator. There are now over 100,000 defibrillators in the United Kingdom registered on The Circuit.

Pursuant to the Answer of 25 June to Question 61301 on Alzheimer's Disease: Drugs, if he will publish a (a) summary and (b) redacted version of the economic models used in the NICE appraisals of (i) lecanemab and (ii) donanemab.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) single technology appraisal process relies on information provided by companies to evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of new treatments. Some of this information, including the economic model, is considered commercially sensitive by the companies and is submitted to NICE in confidence. As a result, this material cannot be made publicly available. However, versions of the models with the commercially sensitive information redacted are available from NICE upon request, to registered stakeholders who have signed a confidentiality agreement, to inform their understanding of the evaluation.NICE is committed to being as transparent as possible. While the economic models for lecanemab and donanemab cannot be published, the full committee papers, with confidential information redacted, are published. These contain a written description of the model design, inputs, and results. The appraisal committee’s consideration of the cost-effectiveness evidence is also documented in the published guidance. This ensures that stakeholders can understand the basis for NICE’s recommendations, even when certain technical details must remain confidential. The papers for lecanemab are available at the following link:https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-ta11220/documentsIn addition, the papers for donanemab are also available, at the following link:https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-ta11221/documents

Pursuant to the Answer of 25 June to Question 61301 on Alzheimer's Disease: Drugs, whether NICE has made an assessment of the potential impact of not publishing the economic models for (a) lecanemab and (b) donanemab due to commercial confidentiality on patient access.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) single technology appraisal process relies on information provided by companies to evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of new treatments. Some of this information, including the economic model, is considered commercially sensitive by the companies and is submitted to NICE in confidence. As a result, this material cannot be made publicly available. However, versions of the models with the commercially sensitive information redacted are available from NICE upon request, to registered stakeholders who have signed a confidentiality agreement, to inform their understanding of the evaluation.NICE is committed to being as transparent as possible. While the economic models for lecanemab and donanemab cannot be published, the full committee papers, with confidential information redacted, are published. These contain a written description of the model design, inputs, and results. The appraisal committee’s consideration of the cost-effectiveness evidence is also documented in the published guidance. This ensures that stakeholders can understand the basis for NICE’s recommendations, even when certain technical details must remain confidential. The papers for lecanemab are available at the following link:https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-ta11220/documentsIn addition, the papers for donanemab are also available, at the following link:https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-ta11221/documents