Speeches by Dalton.

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North (Charlotte Nichols) on securing this debate, and I thank all hon. Members from across the House for their wide-ranging interventions. They all raise a number of important points. The continued rise in drug-related deaths is deeply concerning, and my Departme…”

“The majority of those services are provided through community diagnostic centres. I do not have any figures to hand but I am more than happy to write to the hon. Member with whatever figures we have available. Within those services, we have recently begun testing AI-based platforms to triage patients following referral…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight West (Mr Quigley) for this important debate and all hon. Members who have contributed. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Neath and Swansea East (Carolyn Harris) for raising the report by the APPG for beau…”

“The vaccine damage payment scheme is not a compensation scheme but a one-off payment. It is important to state that. As I have said, we recognise that there are concerns, which campaigners have raised, and their input is shaping our ongoing consideration of reforms to the scheme. All vaccines in the UK are authorised b…”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question and offer my best wishes to his constituent Ruth in her treatment. I thank him for bringing her story to my attention. I really do appreciate—perhaps more than most—the urgency of the matter. Although I am unable to comment on individual cases, I understand that one of …”

“This Government are committed to improving survival for blood cancers, including acute myeloid leukaemia. We are raising awareness, delivering more research, and improving early diagnosis. Blood cancer is the third biggest cancer killer, and the fifth most common cancer in the UK. That is why we are committed to develo…”

“At national level, a number of initiatives support service improvement and better care for patients with migraine. The Getting It Right First Time neurology programme published a national specialty report that made several recommendations to improve recognition and diagnosis of migraine by GPs. Additionally, the RightC…”

“Absolutely. The new progress, particularly around circulating tumour DNA, is really interesting, and we are moving forward with more investment in research so that we can bring forward more such treatment.”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question, but I think he might be mistaken. We are opening more CDCs than ever before—I have lost count of the amount of CDCs we have been invited to open—and we are making sure that people have access to diagnostics in their community, from hospital to community, with the most access…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her question and her well wishes. We are taking cancer detection seriously in general practice, and there is work to do. It is why we have recently launched Jess’s rule, which is a patient safety initiative that means when patients return three times with worsening or undiagnosed symptoms, GP…”

“This Government are investing an extra £26 billion in the NHS, opening up community diagnostic centres at evenings and weekends and delivering 5 million more appointments to catch cancer earlier. We are making progress: 135,000 more patients have already had cancer diagnosed or ruled out within the 28-day target compar…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue, and I offer my sympathy and best wishes to Jules and her family. Of course, I commend her awareness-raising work, which is really important. Her experience is one of the reasons why we are rolling out targeted lung screening and starting to use artificial intelligence to d…”

“I reiterate my deepest sympathies to all those who have experienced harm following vaccination and to their families. I recognise many of the concerns that campaigners have raised regarding the vaccine damage payment scheme. Their input will shape our ongoing consideration of reforms to the scheme and I will keep Parli…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. As we know, guidelines are only as strong as the evidence and research that they are based on. We need systematic, robust data to determine which treatments and interventions are most effective. While we are backing our life sciences sector to come up with tomorrow’s treatme…”

“As the hon. Member is probably aware, the Government are working hard to develop policies to support people, particularly people with health conditions, into work. These issues are being raised through the “Get Britain Working” plan, which my right hon. and hon. Friends in the Department for Work and Pensions are bring…”

“The hon. Member pre-empts the end of my speech, where I was going to say that I would be more than happy to meet specialists in this area to discuss how we can move forward. It is important that today’s debate is the beginning of our conversation, not the end of it. The Government are focused on standardising and co-or…”

“It is a pleasure, as always, to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Cat Smith) for bringing forward this important issue. This place is vastly enriched by our experiences, and it is nothing short of inspiring how my hon. Friend’s diagnosis has led…”

“I certainly hope that that will be the case. That is what we are working towards.”

“Vaccination remains a real priority for the Department, and we are working to increase uptake. In order to do that, we have to understand what the barriers are. We have been doing an awful lot of work to do that. From January next year, children will be eligible for the new vaccine, which I have highlighted, at routine…”

“The vaccination roll-out remains the responsibility of the vaccination board that I chair. ICBs will be expected to report into that, so there will be monitoring, and they will be expected to deliver on the basis of the national strategy. We are also looking at how we roll that out from a very local perspective, as wel…”