Ovarian Cancer
Naomi Long: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to improve detection rates of ovarian cancer. [189711]
Jane Ellison: We are fully committed to improving detection rates of ovarian cancer through early diagnosis and treatment.
In partnership with Public Health England and NHS England, we are running a regional Be Clear on Cancer campaign in the North West of England from 10 February to 16 March, to raise awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer and to encourage people with relevant
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symptoms to visit their general practitioner (GP). The findings of this pilot will be evaluated before a decision is made on whether to roll out the campaign nationally throughout England.
“Improving Outcomes: A Strategy for Cancer”, published in January 2011, committed more than £450 million of additional funding up to 2014-15 to support earlier diagnosis of cancer by:—improving public awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer; increasing GP access to key diagnostic tests (including non-obstructive ultrasound to support the diagnosis of ovarian cancer); and paying for extra testing and treatment in secondary care.
In April 2011, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published its clinical guideline, “Ovarian cancer: The recognition and initial management of ovarian cancer”, which sets out best practice guidance on the detection, diagnosis and initial management of ovarian cancer. We would expect clinicians to follow NICE guidance on the detection of ovarian cancer.
More generally, NICE is in the process of updating the “Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer” (2005) to ensure that it reflects latest evidence and can continue to support GPs. To identify patients with the symptoms of suspected cancer, including ovarian cancer, and urgently refer them as appropriate.
Prostate Cancer
Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps he is taking to ensure people with prostate cancer are advised of their eligibility to participate in current clinical trials; [189591]
(2) how many clinical trials on prostate cancer treatments on which the National Institute for Health Research has made information available through its UK Clinical Trials Gateway there were in each month since the Gateway was established; [189592]
(3) what estimate he has made of the number of people with prostate cancer recruited into clinical trials for prostate cancer treatments in each of the last five years; [189593]
(4) how many centres have conducted clinical trials for prostate cancer treatments in each of the last 10 years; [189594]
(5) what representations he has received on the level of access people with prostate cancer have to clinical trials for treatments for their condition in the last two years; what the content of those representations was; and if he will make a statement. [189601]
Dr Poulter: The Department has received no representations in the last two years specifically concerning the level of access people with prostate cancer have to clinical trials for treatments for their condition.
There are currently 74 prostate cancer studies listed on the UK Clinical Trials Gateway (UKCTG) that are recruiting patients, in a total of 274 locations. Data on the number of prostate cancer studies listed on the UKCTG in a particular month are not collected and are therefore not available.
The number of people recruited to prostate cancer treatment trials by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) is shown in the following table.
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| Number | |
The NIHR funds 14 Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMCs) across England in close partnership with Cancer Research UK. Since 2007, 10 of these centres have recruited a total of 362 patients to 49 phase I and phase II prostate cancer trials.
Data are not held on the total number of people recruited to prostate cancer treatment trials in England in each of the last five years outside the NIHR CRN and the ECMCs, or on the total number of centres conducting prostate cancer treatment trials in England in each of the last 10 years.
The Department works closely with its cancer research funding partners through the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI). The NCRI is a strategic partnership of 22 Government, charity and industry cancer research funders, together with patients. NCRI Clinical Studies Groups' (CSG) portfolio maps were created to provide a visual representation of a CSG's current research activity and are comprised of studies that are open and recruiting and those funded and in set-up. The maps, including ones for prostate cancer, are updated monthly and are available on the NCRI website at:
http://csg.ncri.org.uk/portfolio-maps
NHS England is committed to ensuring patients are offered every opportunity to take part in research studies, including prostate cancer trials, where they are available. The NHS England draft research strategy sets out a commitment to promote the ideal that every patient coming into the national health service is offered an opportunity to take part in research.
In order to promote the responsibility of commissioning and provider staff to promote and support participation in research, the new standard NHS contract states that:
“The Provider must put arrangements in place to facilitate recruitment of Service Users and Staff as appropriate into Approved Research Studies.”
Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure people diagnosed with prostate cancer and living in isolated areas are supported to travel to a centre participating in a prostate cancer clinical trial. [189595]
Dr Poulter: The Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme covers journeys to receive services under the National Health Service Act 2006 for which the patient has been referred by a doctor or a dentist. The patient must also be in receipt of a qualifying benefit or allowance or be named on an NHS Low Income Scheme certificate. In clinical trials, including prostate cancer trials, funds may be made available to incentivise patients to participate and these could be used to cover travel costs. The availability of these funds and their intended use are at the discretion of the research funder.
Paul Burstow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what proportion of multidisciplinary teams caring for a patient with prostate cancer had prostate
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cancer nurse specialist provision at the time of
(a)
the most recent round of peer review and
(b)
previous rounds of peer review; and if he will make a statement; [189597]
(2) what estimates he has made of the proportion of prostate cancer patients who are cared for by a multidisciplinary team in (a) the most recent round of peer review and (b) all previous rounds of peer review; [189606]
(3) what proportion of cases of early prostate cancer were treated with (a) surgery, (b) radiotherapy, (c) hormone therapy and (d) other treatments in each of the last 10 years. [189607]
Jane Ellison: Peer review data specific to prostate cancer patients are not available. The National Peer Review Programme reviews the performance of cancer multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and there are no prostate specific MDTs. Patients with prostate cancer would be treated by a urological cancer MDT.
All patients with urological cancers, including prostate cancers, should be managed by MDTs, in line with the guidance, ‘Improving Outcomes in Urological Cancers’, published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (now the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) in 2002. Prostate cancer patients may be treated by both local and specialist MDTs depending on the complexity of the treatment required.
There are currently 88 local urological MDTs and 49 specialist urological MDTs and all now have Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS). In terms of previous years Peer Review data from 2011-12 did identify one local MDT that had no CNS.
In the following table we have provided a count of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) for which the primary diagnosis is for the requested treatments over the last 10 years:
| Surgery | Radiotherapy | Hormone Therapy | FCEs | |
| Note: A finished consultant episode (FCE) is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. Figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year. | ||||
Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many applications to the Cancer Drugs Fund for a treatment indicated for the treatment of prostate cancer were (a) approved and (b) rejected in each month since the Cancer Drugs Fund was established. [189598]
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Norman Lamb: For the period October 2010 to April 2013, the Department did not collect information on the clinical indications for which drugs were funded through the Cancer Drugs Fund, or on the number of applications for funding that were rejected.
Since April 2013, NHS England has had oversight of the Cancer Drugs Fund. Information on drugs funded through the Cancer Drugs Fund for the treatment of prostate cancer is shown in the table:
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Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what dates technology appraisals relating to a treatment for prostate cancer conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) were concluded in the last 10 years; in each case, whether the technology appraisal (a) recommended in full, (b) recommended in part and (c) rejected the routine use of the treatment on the NHS; what the eligible annual patient population estimated by NICE was in each case; and if he will make a statement. [189599]
Norman Lamb: Information on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's recommendations for prostate cancer technologies between 1 January 2004 and 31 January 2014 is shown in the following table:
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Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the Care Quality Commission has taken to date to ensure services for the treatment of prostate cancer are of a high standard; what steps the Care Quality Commission intends to take in the future; and if he will make a statement. [189604]
Norman Lamb: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. All providers of regulated activities must be registered and continue to meet registration requirements setting out levels of safety and quality. The CQC is responsible for developing and consulting on its methodology for assessing whether providers are meeting the registration requirements.
The CQC has provided the following information:
The CQC is increasingly incorporating information from accreditation and peer review programmes into its assessments of NHS trusts' services for the treatment of prostate cancer. This includes the national cancer peer review programme, which encompasses prostate cancer. The cancer patient survey also asks specific questions on having a specialist nurse. The CQC also intends to use data from the national clinical audit which is being developed for prostate cancer.
Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of prostate cancer patients had prostate cancer diagnosed at (a) clinical stage I or II, (b) clinical stage III and (c) clinical stage IV in the latest period for which figures are available; and what assessment he has made of trends in these proportions. [189605]
Jane Ellison: The latest available data are from 2012 where stage data are available for 55% of the 37,396 men diagnosed with prostate cancer in England:
| Stage | Proportion (percentage) of men with a recorded stage |
| Source: Public Health England, national cancer registration database. | |
Public Health England (PHE) stage data include pathological (based on visual examination of a biopsy sample of the tumour) and clinical (based on X-ray or magnetic resonance imaging results) assessments of cancer stage. For some patients only one of these is available. PHE has used both sources to compile stage data for as many diagnosed men as possible.
Historically, information on stage at diagnosis has been poorly reported to cancer registries and the trend in these proportions is not available and has not been assessed.
Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of waiting times for people diagnosed with prostate cancer in each of the last five years; [189611]
(2) what information he collects on waiting times for people diagnosed with prostate cancer; if he will place information on waiting times for people with prostate cancer in the Library; and if he will make a statement. [189612]
Jane Ellison: National statistics are collected and published on waiting times experienced by patients with suspected and diagnosed cancers in order to improve equality of access to cancer services and to contribute to an improvement in survival rates.
The data are published for broad cancer areas, including urological cancers. Publishing data at the more detailed cancer site levels would be reliant on detailed clinical coding and would risk disclosing patient identities.
Information on published waiting times in each of the last five years for patients with suspected and diagnosed urological cancers, which includes prostate cancers, has been placed in the Library.
Thalidomide
Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has made to his German counterpart on compensation from Grünenthal to UK victims of thalidomide poisoning. [189523]
Norman Lamb: No recent representations have been made to the German Government on the subject of compensation from Grünenthal to the United Kingdom victims of the thalidomide disaster.
Tongue-tie
Teresa Pearce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment he has made of the provision of service to diagnose and treat tongue-tie in infants; [190118]
(2) what training is currently provided for midwives in the diagnosis of tongue-tie in infants. [190119]
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Dr Poulter: The Department does not set the content and standard of midwifery training, which is ultimately the responsibility of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
The Government have mandated Health Education England (HEE) to provide national leadership on education, training and work force development in the national health service. This mandate includes a commitment that HEE will ensure that midwifery training produces midwives with the required competencies to practise in the new NHS. HEE will work with stakeholders to influence training curricula as appropriate.
It is for the NHS locally to ensure appropriate services are available for the diagnosis and treatment of tongue- tie. Some babies with tongue-tie can still feed properly and do not need any treatment. If the condition is causing problems with feeding, health professionals should discuss the options with parents and agree the most appropriate form of treatment.
For some babies, extra help and support with breastfeeding is all that is needed. If this does not help, the tongue-tie needs to be divided by a registered practitioner.
To assist the NHS, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) considered the division of ankyloglossia (tongue-tie) in depth in July 2004. Current NICE guidelines recommend when considering division of tongue-tie, healthcare professionals should discuss the benefits and risks with the parents or carers of any child before they consent to the treatment, and the results of the procedure are monitored.
International Development
Female Genital Mutilation
8. Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent steps her Department has taken to tackle female genital mutilation; and if he will make a statement. [902828]
Lynne Featherstone: The UK is supporting efforts to end female genital mutilation worldwide by making the largest single donor commitment ever to this issue, with a flagship programme of £35 million over five years. We also aim to galvanise unprecedented political commitment for this neglected issue.
Violence against Women and Girls
9. Nicola Blackwood: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how her Department plans to develop, implement and monitor the strategic priority on violence against women and girls in its next operational plan starting in 2015. [902829]
Lynne Featherstone: Country offices are scaling up their programming on violence against women and girls, with over 20 offices funding or planning relevant programmes. As they develop plans for the period beyond 2015, they will address how they intend to deliver DFID’s strategic priorities, including on violence against women and girls.
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Newborn Deaths
10. Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of preventable newborn deaths worldwide. [902830]
Lynne Featherstone: DFID has committed to saving 250,000 newborns and 50,000 lives by 2015. We are also supporting global action in this through our engagement with the Every Newborn Action Plan that will be launched by the World Health Organisation and partners later this year.
Egypt
11. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what work her Department is supporting to promote the re-establishment of democracy in Egypt. [902832]
Mr Duncan: DFID is working closely with the FCO to support Egypt’s transition to a more open and inclusive society. UK funding, worth £6 million, is supporting women’s participation in local council elections, promoting political participation, and providing technical advice and election observers in order to support credible national elections.
Afghanistan
Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what resources her Department currently has in Afghanistan. [190078]
Justine Greening: The current DFID Afghanistan Operation Plan budget comprises £178 million for the year 2013-14.
International Labour Organisation
Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many discussions have taken place between Ministers in her Department and the International Labour Organisation in the last 12 months. [190079]
Justine Greening: Ministers hold regular meetings with the International Labour Organisation.
Overseas Aid
Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans the Government have to increase the proportion of the aid budget disbursed through the private sector; and if she will make a statement. [902824]
Justine Greening: The UK wants to see an end to aid dependency through jobs. This means economic development, creating jobs, raising income and generating taxes to fund vital public services such as health and education. We plan to spend £1.8 billion on economic development in 2015-16.
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Religious Freedom
Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department is taking to promote freedom of religion and belief. [902827]
Lynne Featherstone: UK aid is used to promote the human rights of all citizens, regardless of faith or belief. Through partnerships with Governments DFID promotes religious freedom. DFID programmes address underlying causes of religious conflict and hostility, and support marginalised groups in holding their Governments to account.
Syria
Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what resources her Department has made available in Jordan to assist with the relief effort for Syrian refugees. [190076]
Justine Greening: To date, DFID has contributed £114 million to the humanitarian response in Jordan.
Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what resources her Department has in Lebanon to assist with the relief effort for Syrian refugees. [190077]
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Justine Greening: To date, DFID has contributed £113 million to the humanitarian response in Lebanon.
Anas Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation in Syria. [902831]
Justine Greening: The UN estimates that 9.3 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian aid within Syria and at least 6.5 million people in Syria have been forced to flee their homes to other areas of the country. Over 3 million people in hard to reach areas are not receiving the assistance they need, including 240,000 people living under siege.
Temporary Employment
Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will publish any assessment she has made of the value for money of her Department's spending on consultants and interim staff. [190072]
Justine Greening: DFID undertook a value for money assessment of use of contractors in 2012 and I announced details of the actions being taken as a result at the Bond Annual General Meeting in October 2012.