Written questions by Sandher.

Whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of undertaking a National Mesothelioma Clinical Audit to (a) identify gaps in mesothelioma care, (b) optimise allocation of resources and (c) help tackle regional inequalities in care.

Reducing unwarranted variation in cancer care and treatment is a priority for the Government. In December 2024, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care committed to developing a National Cancer Plan. The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, and will apply to all cancer types, including mesothelioma. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care, including experiences and outcomes and addressing inequalities in care. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next 10 years. In October 2022, the NHS Cancer Programme commissioned the Royal College of Surgeons to deliver six new cancer clinical audits on primary breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and kidney cancer. These were in addition to four ongoings clinical audits on lung, bowel, prostate and oesophago-gastric cancer. The new audits, commissioned in 2022, released their first annual State of the Nation report in Autumn 2024, which is available at the following link: https://www.natcan.org.uk/audits/

What steps his Department is taking to improve maternity services in Leicestershire.

Following Care Quality Commission inspections in January 2024, the trust has strong improvement plans in place for maternity services at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital (LGH). Many actions from both the 2023 and 2024 inspections are already complete or well underway, with key achievements including a targeted improvement programme for Induction of Labour, and implementing a new Telephone Triage system to reduce delays and improve experience.In September and November, the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) respectively opened a new maternity theatre and a new day assessment unit at the LGH, meaning that planned and emergency caesareans can take place in separate areas, further improving access to non-urgent appointments. The UHL have also welcomed 40 midwives, with 28 more due to start before the end of 2024. The trust has also recruited three new consultant obstetricians, alongside nine speciality doctors. The UHL have over 230 student midwives in training, and the trust is also seeing a higher proportion of permanent employees, with the turnover rate reducing to just over 7%, as of April 2024, versus 10% the previous year.

Whether his Department plans to integrate the recommendations of the Lampard inquiry into mental health services nationwide.

The Lampard Statutory Inquiry began public hearings in September 2024. The Department will await the findings of the Inquiry and will consider its recommendations once submitted by the Chair. In the meantime, we are working with NHS England to understand the factors driving poor quality and safety in inpatient and community mental health settings to ensure patients are treated with dignity and respect throughout their treatment in a mental health hospital.