Department of Health and Social Care

As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and is there when people need it, we are over halfway towards our target to recruit an extra 8,500 mental health staff. NHS England is also working to improve retention within the mental health workforce through clearer career progression pathways.

HM Treasury has provided funding to cover the additional cost of employer National Insurance contributions for public sector employers only. This is based on the Office for National Statistics definition of public sector organisations and does not include independent primary care contractors such as dentists.

We recognise this is disappointing, but we have had to take necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances. The National Health Service in England invests approximately £4 billion on dentistry every year, of which £3 billion is spent on primary care dentistry. NHS planning guidance is now published and sets out funding available to integrated care boards for 2025/2026.

HM Treasury has provided funding to cover the additional cost of employer National Insurance contributions for public sector employers only. This is based on the Office for National Statistics definition of public sector organisations and does not include independent primary care contractors such as dentists.

We recognise this is disappointing, but we have had to take necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances. The National Health Service in England invests approximately £4 billion on dentistry every year, of which £3 billion is spent on primary care dentistry. NHS planning guidance is now published and sets out funding available to integrated care boards for 2025/2026.

HM Treasury has provided funding to cover the additional cost of employer National Insurance contributions for public sector employers only. This is based on the Office for National Statistics definition of public sector organisations and does not include independent primary care contractors such as dentists.

We recognise this is disappointing, but we have had to take necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances. The National Health Service in England invests approximately £4 billion on dentistry every year, of which £3 billion is spent on primary care dentistry. NHS planning guidance is now published and sets out funding available to integrated care boards for 2025/2026.

Improving outcomes and experiences of cancer treatment, including lobular breast cancer and other rare cancers, is a priority for the Government. Engagement with campaigners and partners is vital to achieving this.

My rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, accompanied by my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Health, met with representatives of the Lobular Moonshot Project on 14 July 2025 to discuss their work. Following this meeting, the Chief Scientific Adviser and officials from the Department and the Medical Research Council (MRC) met again with the Lobular Moonshot Project to provide advice on existing funding options. Both the MRC and the National Institute for Health and Care Research have committed to continuing to work with the Lobular Moonshot Campaign team to support the development of fundable research proposals in this area and help drive our collective ambition to increase understanding and effective management of this disease.

In April 2025, I attended an event with Cancer Research UK, Macmillan, and Cancer52. The was followed by a roundtable in May 2025, in which I met with Cancer52 members, representing a wide range of cancer types, to discuss how the National Cancer Plan can prioritise rare cancers, to make a meaningful difference to how patients experience cancer treatment, and to bring cancer survivability back up to the standards of the best in the world. I have also met with brain cancer campaigners and All-Party Parliamentary Group members on several occasions since taking up post.

The National Cancer Plan will include more details about improving treatments for all tumour types, including lobular breast cancer. The Department continues to engage with a wide range of cancer partners on the Plan, including charities and patient representative bodies.

It is a legal requirement that all abortions performed in England and Wales, including early medical abortions (EMA) at home, are notified to the Chief Medical Officers for England and Wales respectively, within 14 days of the procedure via the HSA4 abortion notification form. The HSA4 form captures information on where the EMA pills were taken, but not whether they were delivered by post or collected from the clinic.

Statistics on home use of EMA pills for residents of England and Wales are already published by the Department in the annual Abortion Statistics for England and Wales publication. These statistics are published in the main commentary and the additional data tables of the publication. From 2019 to 2022, the statistics on home use of EMA pills were derived using the place of termination information on the HSA4.

In 2022, Parliament voted to permanently approve use of one or both pills for EMA up to 10 weeks at home, following a telephone or e-consultation with a clinician for residents in England and Wales. Following this, in April 2023, new questions were added to the HSA4 form, to capture information on where the abortion medications were taken. Statistics on home use of EMA pills in future publications, from 2023 onwards, will be based on these new questions.

In taking forward the independent review into physician associates and anaesthesia associates, which we recommend should now be known as physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia, Professor Leng engaged with organisations including the Physician Associate Schools Council, and specific higher education institutions.

We will continue to engage with a broad range of stakeholders as we develop a clear implementation plan to address the Review’s 18 recommendations.

The principle question of the Leng Review was to assess whether the roles of physician and anaesthesia associate, which we recommend should now be known as physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia, are safe and effective. The review’s findings were clear that, with changes in line with its recommendations, there remains a place for these roles to continue as supportive, complementary members of medical teams.

NHS England has written to National Health Service trusts, integrated care boards and primary care networks reiterating their responsibilities to their staff as employers, including providing pastoral support where required. Importantly, it has also written directly to staff most affected by the recommendations setting out where they can find support if required.

Whilst decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual NHS employers at a local level, physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia can play a vital role in the delivery of the shifts set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England. Our forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will look at how to get the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care and we will consider the findings of the Leng Review when developing the plan.

The principle question of the Leng Review was to assess whether the roles of physician and anaesthesia associate, which we recommend should now be known as physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia, are safe and effective. The review’s findings were clear that, with changes in line with its recommendations, there remains a place for these roles to continue as supportive, complementary members of medical teams.

NHS England has written to National Health Service trusts, integrated care boards and primary care networks reiterating their responsibilities to their staff as employers, including providing pastoral support where required. Importantly, it has also written directly to staff most affected by the recommendations setting out where they can find support if required. Whilst decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual NHS employers at a local level, physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia will continue to play an important role in the NHS.

Our forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will look at how to get the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care and we will consider the findings of the Leng Review when developing the plan.

The principle question of the Leng Review was to assess whether the roles of physician and anaesthesia associate, which we recommend should now be known as physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia, are safe and effective. The review’s findings were clear that, with changes in line with its recommendations, there remains a place for these roles to continue as supportive, complementary members of medical teams.

NHS England has written to National Health Service trusts, integrated care boards and primary care networks reiterating their responsibilities to their staff as employers, including providing pastoral support where required. Importantly, it has also written directly to staff most affected by the recommendations setting out where they can find support if required. Whilst decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual NHS employers at a local level, physician assistants and physician assistants in anaesthesia will continue to play an important role in the NHS.

Our forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will look at how to get the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care and we will consider the findings of the Leng Review when developing the plan.

The 2024 to 2029 United Kingdom antimicrobial resistance (AMR) National Action Plan (NAP) encompasses a range of One Health activities to target the drivers of AMR. This includes understanding and reducing the spread of AMR through wastewater and built environments.

As set out in the NAP, the UK Health Security Agency’s modular ward will generate evidence on how the hospital environment contributes to the spread of AMR infection, and how wards should be designed, refurbished, and operated to enhance infection, prevention, and control. A particular focus of the modular ward is understanding how risks associated with water and wastewater can be mitigated.

Evidence will be used to inform the New Hospital Programme, which aims to reduce AMR through innovative approaches to design and care models for the next generation of National Health Service hospitals.

A total of £469,613.30 in legal costs, as of the end of May 2025, excluding VAT, has been incurred by the Department of Health and Social Care via the Government Legal Department representing them on the Wilson and others v Bayer Pharma and others case. Another matter, Forshaw, was litigated at the same time where the costs were included within the billing for Wilson, but it is not possible to split the costs on these cases because that data is not available in that format.

Four legal representatives on behalf of the Department and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) attended the hearing in May 2023 at the Royal Courts of Justice, namely a senior Government Legal Department lawyer accompanied by a legal executive, and two Counsel, a King's Counsel and a barrister. There were no attendees from the Department of Health and Social Care or the MHRA.

Improving diagnosis rates is a key priority for the Government for all cancer types, including brain cancers. To achieve this, we are improving public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, streamlining referral routes, and increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres.

In addition, the Government has now exceeded its pledge to deliver two million extra operations, scans, and appointments, having delivered 4.5 million additional appointments as a first step to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the National Health Service constitutional standard, by March 2029.

Furthermore, NHS England is delivering a range of interventions to support general practices in diagnosing brain cancer earlier, for example through the early cancer diagnosis service specification for primary care networks. This specification is designed to support improvements in rates of early cancer diagnosis by requiring primary care networks to review the quality of their general practices’ referrals for suspected cancer and take steps to improve this, where appropriate.

In England, breast screening is offered to women under the age of 50 years old according to nationally recommended guidelines, based on their assessed risk of developing breast cancer. These can be found on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s website in an online-only format.

Women younger than 50 years old are not routinely screened for breast cancer due to the lower risk of women under this age developing breast cancer, and the fact that women below 50 years old tend to have denser breasts. The denseness of breast tissue reduces the ability of getting an accurate mammogram, the accepted screening test for breast cancer.

Due to this and other factors, there is a risk of over-treatment and distress for women who do not have breast cancer but would be subjected to invasive and painful medical treatments and diagnostic tests. Therefore, the Government does not currently plan to introduce comprehensive breast cancer risk assessments for women under 50 years old, although the UK National Screening Committee keeps age brackets under review.

Some women have an increased chance of developing breast cancer because of their genes. Five to 10 out of 100, or 5% to 10% of, all breast cancers happen because of an inherited tendency, also called a genetic predisposition.

National Health Service breast cancer risk assessments in England are undertaken to identify the risk of having an inherited tendency of developing breast cancer. It is up to integrated care boards to commission breast cancer risk assessment services locally in line with national clinical guidance.

The NHS website has a webpage that raises awareness of checking breasts for potential symptoms of breast cancer in all age groups. The NHS Breast Screening Programme produced a five-point plan for being breast aware. The plan sets out that individuals should know what's normal for them, look at and feel their breasts, know what changes to look for, report any changes to a general practitioner without delay and attend routine screening when invited.

In England, breast screening is offered to women under the age of 50 years old according to nationally recommended guidelines, based on their assessed risk of developing breast cancer. These can be found on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s website in an online-only format.

Women younger than 50 years old are not routinely screened for breast cancer due to the lower risk of women under this age developing breast cancer, and the fact that women below 50 years old tend to have denser breasts. The denseness of breast tissue reduces the ability of getting an accurate mammogram, the accepted screening test for breast cancer.

Due to this and other factors, there is a risk of over-treatment and distress for women who do not have breast cancer but would be subjected to invasive and painful medical treatments and diagnostic tests. Therefore, the Government does not currently plan to introduce comprehensive breast cancer risk assessments for women under 50 years old, although the UK National Screening Committee keeps age brackets under review.

Some women have an increased chance of developing breast cancer because of their genes. Five to 10 out of 100, or 5% to 10% of, all breast cancers happen because of an inherited tendency, also called a genetic predisposition.

National Health Service breast cancer risk assessments in England are undertaken to identify the risk of having an inherited tendency of developing breast cancer. It is up to integrated care boards to commission breast cancer risk assessment services locally in line with national clinical guidance.

The NHS website has a webpage that raises awareness of checking breasts for potential symptoms of breast cancer in all age groups. The NHS Breast Screening Programme produced a five-point plan for being breast aware. The plan sets out that individuals should know what's normal for them, look at and feel their breasts, know what changes to look for, report any changes to a general practitioner without delay and attend routine screening when invited.

The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever. This includes all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, including non-hearing children. Auditory verbal therapy is one of a range of approaches that can be used with deaf babies and children.

NHS England and the Department for Education are co-funding £10 million over two years in nine Early Language Support for Every Child pathfinder sites to improve early identification, universal and targeted support for speech, language and communication needs in early years and primary schools, with quicker referrals to specialist services when needed.

Delivering services that will raise the healthiest generation of children ever begins with its people. We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to create a workforce ready to deliver a transformed service. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when they need it.

In addition to the Public Health Grant, in 2025/26 the Department is providing a total of £310 million in additional targeted grants to improve alcohol and drug treatment services and recovery support, including housing and employment, in England. This funding can be used by local authorities to support community pharmacies to deliver harm reduction services.

Many community pharmacies provide locally commissioned services aimed at reducing harm from the misuse of alcohol and drugs, such as supervised consumption of methadone alongside support for self-care, which is an essential service all pharmacies provide. This includes free healthcare advice, public health interventions, and signposting to relevant organisations and services.

The Department is aware of the challenges in the ability of some community pharmacies to provide some substance misuse services such as dispensing, supervised consumption of methadone, and needle and syringe programmes.

The Department has been supporting drug and alcohol treatment services to identify local solutions, including increased payment and some alternative models of provision of these services.

The Government is committed to ensuring that anyone with a drug or alcohol problem can access the help and support they need, and we recognise the need for evidence-based, high-quality treatment.

No assessment has been made on the impact of third-sector providers on National Health Service pressures related to drug and alcohol treatment. Local authorities are responsible for assessing local need for alcohol and drug prevention and treatment in their area, and for commissioning services to meet those needs. The majority of drug and alcohol treatment services are delivered by charities, with a smaller proportion delivered by the NHS or companies.

Dame Carol Black’s independent review of evidence related to drugs, published in February 2020, found that the harms associated with wholly drug-related hospital admissions are estimated at £37 million. This cost includes admissions for mental and behavioural disorders, overdoses and poisonings, and drug-related neonatal disorders. The total cost of all harms associated with partially drug-related hospital admissions is estimated at £156 million. Research shows treatment for drug users can reduce the cost of drug related hospital attendances by 31%.

Effective community alcohol treatment can reduce costs to the NHS. The institute of Alcohol Studies estimates that alcohol costs the NHS and healthcare services £4.9 billion a year, based on 2021/22 prices. Accessible specialist treatment services can help people with alcohol dependence access healthcare at an earlier stage for the high levels of comorbidity they experience.

A cardiac arrest is caused by a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm, which occurs when the heart isn’t working properly and causes the heart to stop beating. Each year approximately 30,000 people receive resuscitation for an out of hospital cardiac arrest in the United Kingdom.

Only one in 10 people that have a cardiac arrest survive to go home from hospital. Fast and effective action will help save the lives of people suffering a cardiac arrest, as the chances of survival from a cardiac arrest that occurs out of hospital doubles if the person receives immediate resuscitation or a high energy shock to the heart, known as defibrillation.

The National Health Service committed to improving community first response and building defibrillator networks to help save 4,000 lives by 2028. This is being supported by educating the general public, including young people of school age, about how to recognise and respond to an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

NHS England is also working with partners such as the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to harness new technology and ensure the public and emergency services are able to rapidly locate this life saving equipment in an emergency.

Patients who survive cardiac arrest and their families are supported through referral to local NHS services, and this will include rehabilitation such as cardiac and neurological rehabilitation and mental health services for psychological support.

There are different pathways for cardiac arrest survivors, depending on the severity of the damage caused by the cardiac arrest. For people being discharged from secondary care and those with ischemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, cardiac rehabilitation services are available in every region.

In December 2024, to support local systems to commission high quality cardiac rehabilitation, NHS England published Commissioning standards for cardiac rehabilitation, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/commissioning-standards-for-cardiovascular-rehabilitation/

These standards of care complement the British Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s Standards and Core Components document, published in 2023, to support the delivery of high-quality care and adherence to evidenced-based practice. Further information on the British Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s Standards and Core Components document is available at the following link:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/66cc563eecc7a22020c7da6c/t/66ffa8f20aef5d0b272c6b0e/1728030962905/BACPR+Standards+and+Core+Components+2023.pdf

The national audit for cardiac rehabilitation assesses practices against these standards of care and publishes the results annually, with the 2024 report available at the following link:

https://www.cardiacrehabilitation.org.uk/site/docs/NCP_CR%20Certification_Report_2024_Final.pdf

NHS England is committed to improving support for cardiac arrest survivor. NHS England has provided additional funding to all ICBs to increase the provision of cardiac rehabilitation across England, where clinically indicated patients can access cardiac rehabilitation following cardiac arrest.

For patients with more complex needs it may be appropriate for them to be referred to Level 1 or 2 inpatient specialist services for short term post-acute rehabilitation, which may be followed by specialist rehabilitation in the community as appropriate.

Patients and their families may also be signposted to appropriate charities such as the BHF’s Cardiac arrest webpage and the Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK’s website, with further information available on both, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/conditions/cardiac-arrest

https://suddencardiacarrestuk.org/

The Government is committed to improving information sharing across services to help safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education and the Home Office on their respective information sharing proposals, which are included in Department for Education’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the Home Office’s Crime and Policing Bill.

The information sharing proposals aim to establish a clear and consistent process to share information. To support the formulation and test the feasibility of these proposals, we have engaged with health stakeholders, including general practitioners, though a variety of forums. We will continue to engage with health stakeholders as we plan for the effective implementation of the use of the single unique identifier, the information sharing duty, and the child sexual abuse mandatory reporting duty.

The Department for Education has published an impact assessment on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments

The Home Office and the Ministry of Justice have published an impact assessment on the Crime and Policing Bill, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/crime-and-policing-bill-2025-impact-assessments

We will continue to support the departments leading on the respective bills to review and update these documents, once the bills have completed their passages through the House of Lords.

We have been informed by the Isle of Wight NHS Trust that there has been a total of 56 Serious Incident investigations during this period, with 35 resulting in an inquest, 20 not requiring an inquest, and one ongoing investigation. Of the 35 cases requiring an inquest, 27 have been completed, with eight outstanding, and with the oldest cases dating back to 2020.

The table attached shows data relating to the Isle of Wight NHS Trust’s Serious Incident investigations for each of the last five years, including the opening and closing dates of the investigation and whether the inquest has been held, and the date of inquest where applicable. This includes cases that now sit under the Hampshire and Isle of Wight NHS Healthcare Foundation Trust after mental health and community services were transferred from the Isle of Wight NHS Trust on 1 October 2024.

The Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Quality Improvement Programme remains committed to improving outcomes and quality of life for people living with sickle cell and thalassaemia. The programme is taking targeted action to align to the commitments within the 10-Year Health Plan to reduce health inequalities nationally, to ensure people in these communities can live longer, healthier lives, spending less time in poor health.

The integration of NHS England into the Department is not due to happen in this financial year, and all programmes of work will be reviewed in alignment with budget setting in future years.

We are developing a Men's Health Strategy which will seek to improve the health and wellbeing of all men in England, and which will be informed by a call for evidence. This includes finding the right ways to promote healthier behaviours, improving outcomes for health conditions that hit men harder, and improving engagement with healthcare. The call for evidence closed on 17 July 2025 and we are now analysing the responses to inform the development of the strategy. The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is currently examining the evidence for screening for sudden cardiac death in people under 39 years old. This will consider screening the whole population under 39 years old and will therefore include young men. The UK NSC will open a public consultation to seek comments from members of the public and stakeholders on this in due course.

NHS England has published the national service specification Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages), that covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease and families requiring follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and mandated guidelines and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for inherited cardiac conditions services to investigate suspected cases. Further information on the Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) service specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf

NHS England has published a suite of national service specifications and standards for congenital heart disease, which define the standards of care expected from all organisations funded by NHS England, to support and improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients with congenital cardiac problems.

There are no plans to publish further specific information on people under the age of 35 years old with cardiac abnormalities, over and above those who would be covered by the service specifications referenced above.

Data shows that in 2022, there were 939 people under the age of 35 years old who died due to heart and circulatory conditions. Further information, including historic data and a breakdown of death by high level condition, is available on the British Heart Failure website, at the following link:

https://www.bhf.org.uk/-/media/files/for-professionals/research/heart-statistics/bhf-cvd-statistics-compendium-2024-v3.pdf?rev=c72e2593b0ac4f2b999ad2f5999d8c07&hash=7DCC7E6832AA9495B0F5E720357DB9FB

NHS England does not hold the data for the number of deaths following out of hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs). The following table shows the number of cardiac arrest patients in England receiving an organised emergency medical services response, whether resuscitation was attempted, continued, terminated, or not attempted, the number where resuscitation was commenced or continued by an ambulance service, and the number of those with survival at 30 days, from 2020 to 2024:

Source: NHS England’s Ambulance Quality Indicators, available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

Notes:

1. the 2020 figure is survival to discharge from hospital rather than survival at 30 days, and may be incomplete;
2. during the COVID-19 pandemic, data suppliers in some hospitals were moved to other duties, making data on survival harder to obtain than data on deaths; and
3. due to a trust-wide outage of the Electronic Patient Clinical Record, data is unavailable from 1 April to 30 September 2023 for the Isle of Wight, and incomplete for the South Central Ambulance Service from July to September 2023.

Publicly available data on OHCAs can also be found on the University of Warwick’s out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes website, at the following link:

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/research/ctu/trials/ohcao/

NHS England has published the national service specification Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages), that covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease and families requiring follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and mandated guidelines and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for inherited cardiac conditions services to investigate suspected cases. Further information on the Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) service specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf

NHS England has published a suite of national service specifications and standards for congenital heart disease, which define the standards of care expected from all organisations funded by NHS England, to support and improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients with congenital cardiac problems.

There are no plans to publish further specific information on people under the age of 35 years old with cardiac abnormalities, over and above those who would be covered by the service specifications referenced above.

Data shows that in 2022, there were 939 people under the age of 35 years old who died due to heart and circulatory conditions. Further information, including historic data and a breakdown of death by high level condition, is available on the British Heart Failure website, at the following link:

https://www.bhf.org.uk/-/media/files/for-professionals/research/heart-statistics/bhf-cvd-statistics-compendium-2024-v3.pdf?rev=c72e2593b0ac4f2b999ad2f5999d8c07&hash=7DCC7E6832AA9495B0F5E720357DB9FB

NHS England does not hold the data for the number of deaths following out of hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs). The following table shows the number of cardiac arrest patients in England receiving an organised emergency medical services response, whether resuscitation was attempted, continued, terminated, or not attempted, the number where resuscitation was commenced or continued by an ambulance service, and the number of those with survival at 30 days, from 2020 to 2024:

Source: NHS England’s Ambulance Quality Indicators, available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

Notes:

1. the 2020 figure is survival to discharge from hospital rather than survival at 30 days, and may be incomplete;
2. during the COVID-19 pandemic, data suppliers in some hospitals were moved to other duties, making data on survival harder to obtain than data on deaths; and
3. due to a trust-wide outage of the Electronic Patient Clinical Record, data is unavailable from 1 April to 30 September 2023 for the Isle of Wight, and incomplete for the South Central Ambulance Service from July to September 2023.

Publicly available data on OHCAs can also be found on the University of Warwick’s out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes website, at the following link:

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/research/ctu/trials/ohcao/

NHS England has published the national service specification Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages), that covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease and families requiring follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and mandated guidelines and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for inherited cardiac conditions services to investigate suspected cases. Further information on the Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) service specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf

NHS England has published a suite of national service specifications and standards for congenital heart disease, which define the standards of care expected from all organisations funded by NHS England, to support and improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients with congenital cardiac problems.

There are no plans to publish further specific information on people under the age of 35 years old with cardiac abnormalities, over and above those who would be covered by the service specifications referenced above.

Data shows that in 2022, there were 939 people under the age of 35 years old who died due to heart and circulatory conditions. Further information, including historic data and a breakdown of death by high level condition, is available on the British Heart Failure website, at the following link:

https://www.bhf.org.uk/-/media/files/for-professionals/research/heart-statistics/bhf-cvd-statistics-compendium-2024-v3.pdf?rev=c72e2593b0ac4f2b999ad2f5999d8c07&hash=7DCC7E6832AA9495B0F5E720357DB9FB

NHS England does not hold the data for the number of deaths following out of hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs). The following table shows the number of cardiac arrest patients in England receiving an organised emergency medical services response, whether resuscitation was attempted, continued, terminated, or not attempted, the number where resuscitation was commenced or continued by an ambulance service, and the number of those with survival at 30 days, from 2020 to 2024:

Source: NHS England’s Ambulance Quality Indicators, available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

Notes:

1. the 2020 figure is survival to discharge from hospital rather than survival at 30 days, and may be incomplete;
2. during the COVID-19 pandemic, data suppliers in some hospitals were moved to other duties, making data on survival harder to obtain than data on deaths; and
3. due to a trust-wide outage of the Electronic Patient Clinical Record, data is unavailable from 1 April to 30 September 2023 for the Isle of Wight, and incomplete for the South Central Ambulance Service from July to September 2023.

Publicly available data on OHCAs can also be found on the University of Warwick’s out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes website, at the following link:

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/research/ctu/trials/ohcao/

NHS England has published the national service specification Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages), which covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease and families requiring follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and mandated guidelines and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for inherited cardiac conditions services to investigate suspected cases. Further information on the Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) service specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf

Genomic testing in the National Health Service in England is provided through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service and is delivered by a national genomic testing network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). The NHS GLHs deliver testing as directed by the National Genomic Test Directory (the Test Directory), which includes tests for over 7000 rare diseases with an associated genetic cause and over 200 cancer clinical indications, including both whole genome sequencing (WGS) and non-WGS testing. Further information on the Test Directory is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/national-genomic-test-directories/

A robust and evidence-based process and policy is in place to routinely review the Test Directory to ensure that genomic testing continues to be available for all patients for whom it would be of clinical benefit, while delivering value for money for the NHS. Further information on this process is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/genomics/the-national-genomic-test-directory/

Genomics has an important role to play in diagnosing and supporting the treatment and management of a number of cardiac conditions. The Test Directory sets out the eligibility criteria for patients to access testing, as well as the genomic targets to be tested and the method that should be used, and this includes genomic testing for a number of conditions which affect the heart, such as testing for familial hypercholesteremia, cardiomyopathies, Long QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome, and others.

NHS England has published the national service specification Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages), which covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease and families requiring follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and mandated guidelines and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for inherited cardiac conditions services to investigate suspected cases. Further information on the Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) service specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf

Genomic testing in the National Health Service in England is provided through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service and is delivered by a national genomic testing network of seven NHS Genomic Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). The NHS GLHs deliver testing as directed by the National Genomic Test Directory (the Test Directory), which includes tests for over 7000 rare diseases with an associated genetic cause and over 200 cancer clinical indications, including both whole genome sequencing (WGS) and non-WGS testing. Further information on the Test Directory is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/national-genomic-test-directories/

A robust and evidence-based process and policy is in place to routinely review the Test Directory to ensure that genomic testing continues to be available for all patients for whom it would be of clinical benefit, while delivering value for money for the NHS. Further information on this process is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/genomics/the-national-genomic-test-directory/

Genomics has an important role to play in diagnosing and supporting the treatment and management of a number of cardiac conditions. The Test Directory sets out the eligibility criteria for patients to access testing, as well as the genomic targets to be tested and the method that should be used, and this includes genomic testing for a number of conditions which affect the heart, such as testing for familial hypercholesteremia, cardiomyopathies, Long QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome, and others.

NHS England has published the national service specification Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) that covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease and families requiring follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for specialised inherited cardiac conditions services to investigate suspected cases. NHS England is currently reviewing this service specification in line with the national service specification methods review process. NHS England is working with a broad range of stakeholders as part of this review including National Health Service clinical experts, the Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions, Cardiomyopathy UK, Heart Valve Voice, and the British Heart Foundation. The Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) service specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf

These documents describe the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients. They cover all paediatric cardiac activity, including both surgery and cardiology, taking place in the Specialist Children’s Surgical Centres, which are Level 1 services, the Specialist Children’s Cardiology Centres, Level 2 services, and the Local Children’s Cardiac Centres, Level 3 services, including activity undertaken by the specialist centres on an outreach basis, where it is delivered as part of a provider network, with the aim of ensuring that all patient care is of a consistently high quality.

The Department expects National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on the use of electrocardiograms for young people presenting with certain symptoms to be followed.

To stop sudden cardiac death (SCD) in young people, the current consensus is to focus on the rapid identification and care of people who are likely to be at risk of SCD due to a family link or because they have had symptoms, and to train people to carry out cardiopulmonary resuscitation and to use defibrillators.

NHS England has published the national service specification Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) that covers patients who often present as young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease and families requiring follow up due to a death from this cause. This describes the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients or family members. It also includes the requirement for specialised inherited cardiac conditions services to investigate suspected cases. NHS England is currently reviewing this service specification in line with the national service specification methods review process. NHS England is working with a broad range of stakeholders as part of this review including National Health Service clinical experts, the Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions, Cardiomyopathy UK, Heart Valve Voice, and the British Heart Foundation. The Inherited Cardiac Conditions (All Ages) service specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cardiology-inherited-cardiac-conditions.pdf

These documents describe the service model and guidance that should be followed to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients. They cover all paediatric cardiac activity, including both surgery and cardiology, taking place in the Specialist Children’s Surgical Centres, which are Level 1 services, the Specialist Children’s Cardiology Centres, Level 2 services, and the Local Children’s Cardiac Centres, Level 3 services, including activity undertaken by the specialist centres on an outreach basis, where it is delivered as part of a provider network, with the aim of ensuring that all patient care is of a consistently high quality.

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. To enable rapid access for NHS patients to new and effective life-extending treatments, NICE aims, wherever possible, to issue recommendations on new medicines close to the point of licensing. The NHS in England is legally required to fund the use of NICE approved cancer medicines. NICE has recommended 24 out of the 25 breast cancer treatments it has assessed since April 2018. These medicines are now available to NHS patients in England.

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, as well as prevention and research. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. Research and innovation are key focuses of the National Cancer Plan. The plan will look to build on the success of our life sciences sector and projects such as the NHS cancer vaccine launch pad, and will also consider the ways that we can accelerate the uptake of innovative, life-saving treatments so all NHS patients can benefit.

The plan is due to be published later this year and will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately driving up this country’s cancer survival rates.

The Government is committed to cutting the current time it takes to get a clinical trial set up to 150 days by March 2026. England and Wales are streamlining the set-up and delivery of clinical research through a four nation UK Clinical Research Delivery (UKCRD) programme.

The UKCRD programme brings together delivery partners and key stakeholders from across the clinical research sector to achieve the common aim of making the United Kingdom a world leader in clinical trials.

The UKCRD programme has implemented a Study Set-Up Plan, led by the Department on behalf of all four nations. The second and final phase Study Set-Up Plan delivered through the UKCRD was completed in June 2025.

The plan aims to rapidly address the delays affecting clinical research set-up through reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, by standardising commercial contracts, and by removing duplicative steps at sites to create a standardised pathway for pharmacy set-up, to free up workforce capacity.

The Study Set-Up Plan will be supported by a wider suite of complementary activities and designed to support longer-term developments to streamline and reform clinical trials.

The Government is committed to cutting the current time it takes to get a clinical trial set up to 150 days by March 2026. England and Wales are streamlining the set-up and delivery of clinical research through a four nation UK Clinical Research Delivery (UKCRD) programme.

The UKCRD programme brings together delivery partners and key stakeholders from across the clinical research sector to achieve the common aim of making the United Kingdom a world leader in clinical trials.

The UKCRD programme has implemented a Study Set-Up Plan, led by the Department on behalf of all four nations. The second and final phase Study Set-Up Plan delivered through the UKCRD was completed in June 2025.

The plan aims to rapidly address the delays affecting clinical research set-up through reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, by standardising commercial contracts, and by removing duplicative steps at sites to create a standardised pathway for pharmacy set-up, to free up workforce capacity.

The Study Set-Up Plan will be supported by a wider suite of complementary activities and designed to support longer-term developments to streamline and reform clinical trials.

The Department is working with key stakeholders and devolved administrations to develop a UK Research Workforce Strategy to be published in the Autumn 2025. This strategy outlines a vision for embedding research and innovation in routine practice within the National Health Service, primary care, social care, and the public health system over the next 10 years. The strategy aims to build and sustain a strong research environment across all health and social care settings. This will be achieved through a diverse workforce, highly skilled in research and innovation, capable of producing and delivering high-quality research. Following the publication of the United Kingdom-wide strategy, nation-specific implementation plans will be developed. Work has started to develop the implementation plan for England, which will be underpinned by appropriate metrics and allocated to delivery partners.

The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.

The Department is working to fast-track clinical trials to drive global investment into life sciences, improve health outcomes, and accelerate the development of the medicines and therapies of the future.

The Department-funded National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funds research and research infrastructure, which supports patients and the public to participate in high-quality research.

The 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. This makes it easier for people to find and take part in health and care research that is relevant to them. This is accessible through the NHS App and is currently highlighted on the home page for three months from 7 July 2025

The National Health Service, in partnership with Our Future Health, will trial the use of Integrated Risk Scores, which combine genomic data with lifestyle and other non-biological risk factors, within neighbourhood health services. This partnership will generate important evidence to inform whether, and how, integrated risk scores could be used more widely in the NHS. The partnership will initially focus on cardiovascular disease but is set to expand to include diabetes, breast cancer, glaucoma, and osteoporosis. This work represents a significant step towards embedding genetic testing into routine preventive care, enabling earlier identification of individuals at higher genetic risk and personalised healthcare based on risk. This approach directly supports the ambitions set out in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, which commits to shifting the NHS from a reactive model to one that is predictive and preventive, using genomics and data-driven tools to tackle major conditions like diabetes earlier and more effectively.

The Department is committed to funding health and care research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) across England, and to ensuring that the research we support is inclusive and representative of the populations we serve.  We know that cancer survival rates are generally lower in people living in more deprived areas.

In 2024, the NIHR made equity, diversity, and inclusion a condition of funding for all domestic research awards. This means applicants must demonstrate how their research will contribute towards the NIHR’s mission to reduce health and care inequalities, with a focus on participant inclusion from the diverse populations of the United Kingdom.

NIHR research infrastructure has national coverage across the whole of England. Our infrastructure schemes aim to build research capacity and capability across the country across all geographies and settings. In line with prior commitments, the Department has increased funding for research infrastructure schemes delivering cancer research outside the Greater South East, including Biomedical Research Centres, Clinical Research Facilities, and HealthTech Research Centres.

Through the NIHR’s Research Delivery Network (RDN), the NIHR supports 100% of National Health Service trusts in England to deliver research, operating across 12 regions throughout the country. From 2026/27, the RDN will adopt a new national funding model for NHS support costs and research delivery. This will be a consistent, nationally agreed funding distribution model across all regions of England and will reduce regional variations of health research delivery investment, and will better enable clinical trial opportunities across all areas, including underserved areas and settings.

The NIHR also 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 to register their interest. This makes it easier for people to find and take part in health and care research that is relevant to them.

To support the delivery of this ambition, the Department, through NHS England, has put in place new national service specifications, covering both Principal Treatment Centres and the associated Teenage and Young Adult (TYA) Designated Hospital provision, and has established networks to oversee pathways of care, coordinate clinical trial access, and develop local strategies to increase clinical trial recruitment. Alongside this, NHS England has also introduced a metric to monitor trial participation within the TYA Cancer Quality Dashboard.

The Department does not hold data on the overall percentage of children and young people with cancer that are enrolled into clinical trials nationwide but does collect data on general participation through National Institute for Health and Care Research) funded research infrastructure. The Department reports on this data where it is appropriate to do so.

Since it’s relaunch in February 2025, the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce has been exploring ways to improve outcomes and experiences for children and young people with cancer, including by improving access to research. The National Cancer Plan, due for publication later this year, will set out further details on how we will improve outcomes for all cancer patients, including young people.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country. The Government will transform mental health services into 24 hour a day, seven day a week neighbourhood mental health centres, improving assertive outreach and giving patients better access to support directly through the NHS App, including self-referral for talking therapies.

The forthcoming National Cancer Plan for England will seek to improve both the physical and mental health aspects of cancer care. The plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and earlier diagnosis to accessing treatment and ongoing care, and will apply to all cancer types, including prostate cancer.

Fracture Liaison Services are commissioned by integrated care boards, which are well-placed to make decisions according to local need.

Our 10-Year Health Plan committed to rolling out Fracture Liaison Services across every part of the country by 2030.

NHS England is working at a national level on behalf of the Department as part of a wider equality monitoring review programme. This review is exploring how best to update equality monitoring arrangements, including ethnicity categories, by reference to the protected characteristics outlined in the Equality Act 2010.

The National Diabetes Audit (NDA) is a major national clinical audit, which measures the effectiveness of diabetes healthcare against National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) clinical guidelines and NICE quality standards, in England and Wales. This includes NICE’s guidance on diabetes innovations like continuous glucose monitors and hybrid closed loop systems. The NDA is delivered by NHS England, in partnership with Diabetes UK.

The NDA consistently reveals inequalities in diabetes care and outcomes across different socioeconomic and demographic groups. People living in more deprived areas, younger individuals, and some ethnic minorities experience poorer access to care processes and treatment targets compared to their counterparts in less deprived areas and among older individuals.

Some women have an increased risk of developing breast cancer because of their genetics. NHS breast cancer risk assessments are undertaken to identify women under the age of 50 years old at higher risk and offer them breast screening according to national guidelines.

The NHS Health Check, a core component of England’s cardiovascular disease prevention programme, assesses risk factors for cardiovascular disease in people aged 40 to 74 years old and refers them to behavioural support services and clinical management where appropriate.

For these reasons, the Department does not have plans to include personalised breast cancer risk assessments for women under 50 years old in the NHS Health Check Programme.

The 10-Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan will help the National Health Service become the most artificial intelligence (AI) ready healthcare system in the world. While no assessment has yet been made of the potential use of Isambard-AI in processing the medical scans of cancer patients, the Government is fully committed to the ‘scan-pilot-scale’ approach set out in Matt Clifford’s AI Opportunities Action Plan published earlier this year, so that we can ensure AI is deployed in the critical areas where the technology can support better health outcomes.

The Government has already had success with the ‘scan-pilot-scale’ approach as part of the £113 million AI awards, which provided funding for a number of technologies that support cancer diagnosis. In addition, the £21 million AI diagnostic fund is supporting the deployment of technologies in key, high-demand areas such as chest x-ray and chest computed tomography scans to enable faster diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in over half of acute trusts in England. Funding is being provided to 12 imaging networks, which cover 67 out of a total of 137 acute and specialist trusts across all seven regions of England.

In taking forward the independent review into physician associates and anaesthesia associates, Professor Leng sought evidence from a range of voices including patients, staff groups, employers within the National Health Service, professional bodies, and academics. This included United Medical Associate Professionals.

We will continue to engage with a broad range of stakeholders as we develop a clear implementation plan to address the review’s 18 recommendations.