Department of Health and Social Care

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

We are committed to training the staff we need, including rehabilitation specialists, to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.

As of September 2025, there are 490 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the speciality of rehabilitation medicine in National Health Service trusts and other core organisations in England. This is 24, or 5%, more than last year, 116, or 31.2%, more than 2020, and 232, or 90.2%, more than in 2010. This includes over 164 FTE consultants. This is seven, or 4.3%, more than last year, 15, or 10%, more than in 2020, and 50, or 43.8%, more than in 2010.

Fill rates for ST3 level rehabilitation medicine have been increasing. 94% of training posts were filled in 2025 compared to 54% in 2023 and 60% in 2024.

Partial retirement does not mean that National Health Service staff are ineligible for redundancy payments. However, taking partial retirement may change the way in which contractual redundancy payments are calculated.

The rules concerning the calculation of redundancy payments for NHS staff who have previously taken pension benefits, are determined in accordance with their contracts of employment, and statutory redundancy entitlements.

Redundancy terms for NHS staff on the Agenda for Change contract are set out under section 16 of the NHS Staff Terms and Conditions of Service handbook. This also applies to NHS staff whose redundancy terms refer to section 16. This section states that service used for the purposes of calculating previous pension benefits will not count for the calculation of a contractual redundancy payment. Statutory redundancy entitlements are unaffected.

The Department commissions NHS Employers to provide guidance for employers on a range of topics, including NHS redundancy arrangements and retirement options for NHS staff.

Whilst the majority of palliative care and end of life care is provided by National Health Service staff and services, we recognise the vital part that voluntary sector organisations, including children’s hospices, also play in providing support to seriously children at end of life and their loved ones.

I recognise that the closure of Richard House Children’s Hospice will be a worrying time for the parents, carers, and children who use the services at Richard House, as well as for the staff and volunteers.

I am heartened to hear that Haven House Children’s Hospice will be welcoming children and families currently supported by Richard House Children’s Hospice, with support from the North East London Integrated Care Board.

More widely, we have been supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. This amounts to approximately £2.8 million for children’s hospices in London.

Furthermore, children and young people’s hospices have received £26 million in revenue funding for 2025/26. This amounts to approximately £5.65 million for children’s hospices in London. I am delighted that earlier this autumn we were able to confirm the continuation of this funding for children and young people’s hospices for the next three financial years. This amounts to approximately £80 million over that period.

We also recently announced that the Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. This will be aligned with the ambitions set out in our 10-Year Health Plan.

We want to consider, as part of the MSF, contracting and commissioning arrangements, in line with our shift to strategic commissioning. In the long term, this will aid sustainability and help hospices’ ability to plan ahead.

I refer the noble Baroness to the Written Ministerial Statement HLWS1086, which I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.

The Sullivan Review sets out a number of recommendations in relation to the collection of data on sex and gender identity. We are considering these in light of ongoing related work around data harmonisation standards. As all public bodies, and therefore all public data and statistics, were in scope for the review, it’s important we consider the findings in collaborative way across government.

The Government Statistical Service (GSS) Harmonisation Programme, a cross-government work programme looking to improve the comparability and coherence of data and statistics, is developing harmonised standards for sex and gender identity.

NHS England is leading work to develop the United Information Standard of Protected Characteristics, which focusses on the Equality Act 2010’s nine protected characteristics, including both sex and gender reassignment.

Through the Health and Care Statistics Leadership Forum, a group convening statistical leaders across health organisations at the national level to ensure statistical collaboration and coherence, there is work ongoing to catalogue, and improve descriptions of how sex and gender data is collected within our statistical publications, and ensure labelling accurately describes the data being collected.

Sex and gender identity are not always the same thing, and it is important for patients that we record both accurately. We are committed to delivering safe and holistic care for both adults and children when it comes to gender, and that also means accurately recording biological sex, not just for research and insight, but also for patient safety.

On 20 March, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care instructed the health service to immediately suspend applications for National Health Service number changes for under 18s, to safeguard children. It was completely wrong that children's NHS numbers can be changed if they change gender. Children's safety must come first.

We remain committed to recording, recognising and respecting people’s gender identity where these differ from their biological sex. General practitioners are currently able to rename a patient and manually input preferred pronouns and expressed gender in free text without affecting the formal marker.

Our guidance to local authorities on the collection of Client Level Data is under review to ensure it adheres to the advice in the Review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender. We are also awaiting guidance from the Government Statistical Service on harmonisations of sex and gender identity data.

The 2023 Directions set out national data requirements and do not necessarily cover all the information that local authorities collect to effectively discharge their statutory obligations.

Between April 2020 and March 2025, 1,935 animal welfare breaches posing potential or imminent animal welfare risk were recorded in slaughterhouses in England and Wales, requiring 2,320 enforcement actions. Some breaches required multiple actions, such as verbal advice followed by written advice.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) does not routinely collect data on slaughter methods. Approved slaughterhouses may use any compliant method and are not legally required to inform the FSA of the stunning method. Many establishments alternate between stunned and non-stunned slaughter to meet demand. Breaches of animal welfare regulations can occur at any stage after arrival, so it is not possible to confirm whether the method involved was stunned or non-stunned.

Data on triple negative breast cancer for England is collected through the National Disease Registration Service (NDRS). An NDRS Quality Assurance Team is in place to identify, investigate, and monitor data quality issues, with over 130 Quality Assurance reports being run each month as well as quarterly reports to assess the completeness of key data.

To drive up the completeness of the data, progesterone receptor status, human epidermal growth factor receptor in situ hybridization status, and oestrogen receptor status are assessed as part of the Cancer Outcomes and Services Data set, which supports national registration.

Pregnant women with alcohol problems are often highly vulnerable with multiple and complex support needs. The Government is committed to ensuring pregnant women with alcohol problems are supported to reduce the risk of harm to themselves and the foetus, and later the baby, and to help them to engage in antenatal care, safeguarding, and other local services.

The Department, with the support of partners from the devolved administrations, has recently developed and published the first ever United Kingdom clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment. The guidelines have a full section dedicated to pregnancy and perinatal care which sets out the principles that guide the personalised care that women and other people who are pregnant should receive, in order to be supported to reduce, and when safe to, stop their alcohol use as quickly as possible, and that this should be done in a non-judgemental, non-stigmatising way. Healthcare staff, including in maternity and alcohol treatment services, should make every effort to provide accessible care and to engage women who are pregnant and who are alcohol dependent or drinking heavily.

The guidelines also reference the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance QS204, which recommends that pregnant women are asked about their alcohol use throughout their pregnancy and that the response is recorded. If there is evidence of failure to follow NICE guidelines, which can lead to negative outcomes, the Care Quality Commission can take appropriate action in response. NICE guidance is expected to be followed unless there is clear justification and alternative evidence-based practice for any deviation from them.

We are providing local authorities with £3.4 billion ringfenced funding over the next three years for alcohol and drug treatment and recovery. Local authorities are responsible for commissioning alcohol treatment and recovery services and can invest in interventions that strengthen the support available to children and families, including pregnant women affected by alcohol, according to a local assessment of need.

Women’s oral health matters for pain, nutrition, mental wellbeing, confidence and for safe resettlement. Although no assessment has been made, evidence shows higher unmet dental need in prisons. Prisoners often enter prison with higher rates of dental decay and oral disease than their peers in the community but with lower levels of treatment. This was most recently reviewed in “A survey of prison dental services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland 2017 to 2018” published by Public Health England in 2019.

Our approach to tackling inequalities brings together the national prison dental specification, the Women’s Prisons Health and Social Care Review and the Women’s Health Strategy. We will strengthen trauma informed, preventative care in women’s prisons, promote pre-release dental planning wherever possible and use RECONNECT to support GP and dental appointments on release. RECONNECT offers liaison, advocacy and support to engage with community-based health services to help ensure health needs of people leaving prison are met. This helps improve treatment continuity and reduces inequalities between custody and community care.

The House of Commons has voted to add a clause to the Crime and Policing Bill which disapplies the criminal offences related to abortion for a woman acting in relation to her own pregnancy. These offences would still apply to medical professionals and third parties who do not abide by the rules set out in the Abortion Act 1967. The bill will now continue its progress through Parliament.

Informed consent is separate from the requirements set by the Abortion Act for two doctors to certify that a woman meets the grounds for abortion. Consent to treatment means a person must give permission before they receive any type of medical treatment, test, or examination. For consent to be valid, it must be voluntary and informed, and the person consenting must have the capacity to make the decision. These principles will continue to apply irrespective of whether abortion is decriminalised.

As part of standards set by the Care Quality Commission, abortion services must be able to prove that they have processes in place to ensure that all women and girls are seeking services voluntarily. It will also remain a requirement for an abortion service, as laid out in the Department’s Required Standard Operating Procedures, that staff should be able to identify those who require more support than can be provided in the routine abortion service setting, including where there is evidence of coercion.

Safeguarding is an essential aspect of abortion care, and abortion providers are required to have effective arrangements in place to safeguard children and vulnerable adults accessing their services. Providers must ensure that all staff are trained to recognise the signs of potential abuse and coercion and know how to respond. In addition, we expect all providers to have due regard to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s national safeguarding guidance for under-18 year olds accessing early medical abortion services.

The Department is continuing to monitor abortion related amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill and will consider whether current arrangements are sufficient or if additional guidance is needed.

The contract for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) services was reviewed in 2024, as existing contract terms expired. This included an update of the service specification using the published full methods process, and a public consultation on the proposal to reduce the number of commissioned providers in England from eight to six centres. Further information on the service specification, the published full methods process, and the consultation is available, respectively, at the following three links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-services-all-ages-Service-specification-January-2025.pdf

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/methods-national-service-specifications/

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/reviewing-hyperbaric-oxygen-services-consultation-guide/#:~:text=Background,Background,Manual%20of%20Prescribed%20Specialised%20Services

The updates to the specification seek to ensure timely access to treatment for the most acutely unwell patients, with the specification requiring:

• the delivery of care that is integrated with other services, including the emergency department, critical care, and other healthcare professionals as required; and
• facilities should be capable of receiving patients in any diagnostic category who may require advanced life support either immediately or during HBOT.

The geographical scope of the six services will ensure that there are no more than four hours travelling time by road from coastal locations, from the furthest borders, or between neighbouring commissioned HBOT centres, which is in line with good practice guidelines.

Across larger integrated care board (ICB) footprints there will be a renewed focus on the local level as part of our commitment to delivering care closer to home, and this includes rural and semi rural areas. As outlined in our 10-Year Health Plan, neighbourhood health plans will be created and will be brought together as part of the ICBs’ plans to improve population health locally.

In line with the Department’s required standard operating procedures for the approval of independent sector places for termination of pregnancy in England, women seeking abortion services must be given impartial, accurate, and evidence-based information so that they are able to make an informed choice about their preferred course of action.

The National Health Service website provides factual information on abortion, including directing people seeking impartial information and support to their general practice or to regulated organisations such as Brook, for under 25 year olds, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, MSI Reproductive Health Choices UK, and National Unplanned Pregnancy Advisory Service. All the main abortion providers offer pregnancy counselling, which includes advice on options such as parenting and adoption.

Following a diagnosis of fetal anomaly, women and their partners must receive appropriate counselling and support. At no stage should there be a bias towards abortion. All staff involved in the care of a woman or couple facing a possible termination of pregnancy must adopt a nondirective, non-judgemental, and supportive approach. It should not be assumed that a woman will choose to have a termination, and a decision to continue with the pregnancy must be fully supported. In addition, the charity Antenatal Results and Choices offers information and support for people who have received a diagnosis after antenatal screening.

Across larger integrated care board (ICB) footprints there will be a renewed focus on the local level as part of our commitment to deliver care closer to home. As outlined in our 10-Year Health Plan, neighbourhood health plans will be created, including for Gloucestershire, and will be brought together as part of the ICBs’ plans to improve population health locally.

The Department was not consulted prior to the publication of the British Medical Journal Article concerning terminology used in relation to female genital mutilation.

The Government does not tolerate female genital mutilation which can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls. The focus remains on preventing these crimes from happening, supporting and protecting survivors and those at risk, and bringing perpetrators to justice.

This includes a mandatory reporting duty for regulated health professionals to report cases of female genital mutilation in girls under 18 years of age to the police.

There are no plans to review the scope of statutory protections for healthcare professionals who conscientiously object to participating in abortion procedures. In England and Wales the right to refuse to participate in terminations of pregnancy, other than where the termination is necessary to save the life of, or prevent grave injury to, the pregnant woman, is protected by law under section 4(1) of the Abortion Act 1967.

The Department’s required standard operating procedures for the approval of independent sector places for termination of pregnancy, or abortion, in England sets out that women requesting termination of pregnancy must be given impartial, accurate, and evidence-based information, both verbal and written, delivered in a clear, understandable, and non-judgemental way. This includes informing women about their options so that they can make an informed choice about their preferred course of action. As early as possible, women should be provided with detailed information including alternatives to abortions, for instance, adoption and motherhood. Their choice should be respected without any unnecessary delay.

There are no plans for the Government to review the gestational limits of abortion. It is for Parliament to decide whether to make any changes to the law on abortion, including gestational time limits.

When the time limit was last reduced in 1990, there was a clear consensus from the medical profession that the age of viability had reduced from 28 weeks to 24 weeks gestation. There is currently no clear medical consensus that the age of viability has reduced below 24 weeks.

The Government does not formulate policy on fetal sentience and fetal pain. The review and determination of fetal sentience and its implications for abortion and clinical practice is reached through professional medical consensus and clinical guidance.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has carried out a comprehensive review into fetal awareness evidence. Published in December 2022, the review concluded that the evidence to date indicates that the possibility of pain perception before 28 weeks of gestation is unlikely.

The health and wellbeing of all National Health Service staff is a top priority.

Local employers across the NHS have arrangements in place to support staff including occupational health provision, employee support programmes, and a focus on healthy working environments. At a national level, NHS staff have access to the SHOUT helpline for crisis support alongside the Practitioner Health service for more complex mental health and wellbeing support, including trauma and addiction.

As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will work with the Social Partnership Forum to introduce a new set of staff standards for modern employment, covering issues such as access to healthy meals, support to work healthily and flexibly, and tackling violence, racism, and sexual harassment in the workplace.

The 10-Year Health Plan committed to the roll out of Staff Treatment Hubs, to provide a high-quality, wellbeing and occupational health service for all National Health Service staff. Work is underway to develop implementation and operational plans for the Staff Treatments Hubs. This will determine factors such as location, budgets, timeframes and capacity.

We will deliver the first ever Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. This will be informed by phase one of the independent commission into adult social care, expected in 2026.

The Frailty and Dementia Modern Service Framework will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.

We intend to engage with a range of partners over the coming months to enable us to build a framework which is both ambitious and practical, to ensure we can improve system performance for people with dementia both now and in the future.

The Department undertakes an annual review of the capital limits and the social care allowances within the adult social care charging system.

The capital limits determine eligibility for means-tested local authority support with care costs, and the social care allowance rates set the statutory minimum income that individuals must retain after charging.

To communicate the rates for the upcoming financial year, 2026/27, the Department will publish a Local Authority Circular on the GOV.UK website, in early 2026. Local authorities should reflect these updates in their publicly available charging policies, ensuring consistent communication at both a local and national level.

We understand that not all patients can or want to use online services. The GP Contract is clear that patients should always have the option of telephoning or visiting their practice in person, and all online tools must always be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, other channels for accessing a general practice.

Integrated care boards (ICBs), as commissioners of primary care services, are responsible for ensuring general practices are meeting the requirements of their contracts. If necessary, ICBs can issue formal warnings, apply financial sanctions, and terminate contracts if practices are not meeting the needs of their patients.

The GP Contract is clear that patients should always have the option of telephoning or visiting their practice in person, and all online tools must always be provided in addition to, rather than as a replacement for, other channels for accessing a general practice.

If a patient believes their practice is not meeting this requirement, patients can write to the practice manager. If they are not comfortable raising a complaint directly, they can instead raise their concerns with the local National Health Service integrated care board (ICB), with NHS England, or with his/her local Healthwatch, the independent consumer champion for health and social care.

As commissioners of primary care services, ICBs can investigate the situation further and take appropriate actions. Their contract details can be found on the NHS website, at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/find-your-local-integrated-care-board/

Further information about the NHS complaints procedure and Healthwatch can be found, respectively, at the following two links:

www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-the-nhs/how-to-complain-to-the-nhs

www.healthwatch.co.uk

The information requested is not held centrally. NHS England commissions healthcare services in every prison in England, and funding for mental health services for individuals within the criminal justice system is embedded within wider service contracts. These include services such as RECONNECT and Liaison and Diversion, and the specific expenditure on mental health within these services is not collected.

We are grateful to Dr Kingdon for the review into children’s hearing services published on 4 December 2025. No assessment has yet been made of the potential implications on policies. We are progressing an early analysis of implementation requirements for each of the 12 recommendations made by Dr. Kingdon. We will provide further updates once this initial assessment has been completed and a detailed timetable has been established.

The Department funds research into epilepsy via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Between 2020/21 and 2024/25, the NIHR invested £12.8 million in direct research funding on epilepsy. This investment in epilepsy research allows us to continue developing our understanding of the condition and make a real difference to people living with epilepsy, as demonstrated by the examples of impact outlined below.

In 2022, the NIHR-hosted James Lind Alliance (JLA) carried out a UK Epilepsy Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) with epilepsy patients, carers, and service providers to identify the most pressing research priorities for ongoing epilepsy research investment. Many NIHR-funded research projects align to and address the priorities set out by the JLA PSP, boosting epilepsy research. These include:

• the Ultra Long-Term EEG to Guide Rapid Treatment Changes for People with Epilepsy (LEG-RTC) study, which that is studying how the first ever ultra-long term seizure recorder could help improve outcomes and reduce risk of harm for patients with epilepsy whose condition cannot be controlled by medication, with further information available at the following link: https://www.fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR209057;
• the Medicinal Cannabis in Refractory Epilepsies study, which aims to explore whether two different cannabis-based medicines are a useful treatment for refractory epilepsy in reducing seizures, and whether these medicines impact learning, sleep, behavior, quality of life, stress, and anxiety, with further information available at the following link: https://www.fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR131309; and
• the Developing a wireless intracranial neuromonitoring device for drug-resistant epilepsy study, to develop a wireless neuromonitoring device for drug-resistant epilepsy, aiming to create a minimally invasive, implantable device which allows for extended monitoring of seizures without the need for patients to remain in hospital leading to less patient distress, better localization data, reduced clinical costs, and better surgical outcomes. Further information is available at the following link: https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR204209.

Other examples of NIHR-funded epilepsy research and impact include:

• the Epilepsy: what are the chances of having a second seizure? study, where, in 2023, NIHR-funded researchers found that an individual’s risk of having a second seizure after an initial unprovoked seizure was highest in the first six months, although the risk remained elevated for two years and beyond, providing critical insights for doctors counselling their patients on repeat seizure risks. Many studies in this review had a follow-up period of less than two years. This review therefore highlights the need for further research which can estimate the risk of seizure recurrence beyond two years. Further information is available at the following link: https://evidence.nihr.ac.uk/alert/epilepsy-what-are-the-chances-of-having-a-second-seizure/; and
• the How can we support the mental health of children with epilepsy? study, which evaluated the remotely delivered Mental Health Intervention for Children with Epilepsy (MICE), delivered by epilepsy clinicians with limited formal training in psychological interventions. Compared with usual care, when clinicians used the intervention, young people with epilepsy and their carers had improved mental health. The evidence from this research suggests that a variety of clinicians can effectively and safely treat children with epilepsy and mental health difficulties. The remote delivery of MICE was beneficial in terms of less travel time and less time out of school for children. Further information is available at the following link: https://evidence.nihr.ac.uk/alert/how-can-we-support-the-mental-health-of-children-with-epilepsy/.

The NIHR also works closely with other Government funders, including UK Research and Innovation, which is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and includes the Medical Research Council, to fund research into epilepsy to improve treatments and prevent poor health outcomes for patients.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including epilepsy. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. Welcoming applications on epilepsy to all NIHR programmes enables maximum flexibility both in terms of amount of research funding a particular area can be awarded, and the type of research which can be funded.

Community health services, including speech and language therapy, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.

North Cornwall Speech and Language therapist services are commissioned through the National Health Service, local authorities, educational institutions, independent providers, and the non-profit sector across multiple settings within geographical areas.

Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) workforce for Cornwall and Isles of Scilly includes:

• A (adult SLT) team of 10.95 whole time equivalent registered Speech and Language Therapy staff which support adults countywide, which include those referred from North Cornwall. The teams work across the county to give resilience, with 3.80 whole time equivalent of these registered Speech and Language Therapy staff designated to the North and East Teams.
• A (Children SLT) team of 37.60 whole time equivalent registered Speech and Language Therapy staff and one apprentice which support children countywide, the registered staff designated to the North and East of Cornwall 13.64 whole time equivalent.

We recognise the impact that long waits to access speech and language therapy can have on the individual, their families, and carers and we are working closely with NHS England to improve timely access to community health services and on actions to reduce long waits. We have also published for the first time an overview of the core community health services, in Standardising Community Health Services, which includes speech and language therapy, and that integrated care boards should consider when planning for their local populations to support improved commissioning and delivery of community health services.

I would like to assure you that the Government is committed to improving the lives of intersex people, who deserve our support, respect, and understanding.

We were interested to read the Council of Europe’s report and are grateful for its work in this important area.

The Government is committed to improving the lives of intersex people, who deserve support, respect and understanding. The Government is also committed to furthering the understanding of intersex people and the challenges they face. The Office for Equality and Opportunity regularly engages with representatives from a range of intersex rights based organisations.

The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.

Planning regulation and approval is a matter for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The National Health Service operates in accordance with published planning guidance.

However, we recognise delivering high-quality NHS healthcare services requires the right infrastructure in the right places. Integrated care boards have developed infrastructure strategies to create a long-term plan for future healthcare estate requirements and investment for each local area and its needs.

These strategies help take the existing and future general practice and primary care estate into account when considering how best to deliver local services, including the development of a Neighbourhood Health Service.

Wexham Park Hospital is managed by the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust (NFT), which received funding from several national capital programmes in 2024/25, including £1.1 million as part of our Critical Infrastructure Risk funding to address backlog maintenance at Wrexham Park Hospital.

In the current year 2025/26, the Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB) will receive £10.1 million from our £750 million Estates Safety Fund to address critical infrastructure and safety risks at Wexham Park Hospital and Frimley Park Hospital.

The Frimley ICB has also been provisionally allocated £27.3 million from the Constitutional Standards Recovery Fund to support performance across secondary and emergency care, and £1.2 million from the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund for improvements in the primary care estate in 2025/26.

Alongside funding for national capital programmes, the Frimley ICB and providers have been allocated £43.9 million in operational capital funding, including primary care business-as-usual capital, for 2025/26, to be prioritised according to local needs. For the 2026/27 to 2029/30 period, the Frimley Health NFT have been allocated £142.9 million in operational capital funding.

The Department has not made an assessment or estimated the number of mental health advice chatbots and large language models.

Publicly available artificial intelligence (AI) applications that are not deployed by the National Health Service, such as ChatGPT and Character AI, are not regulated as medical technologies and may offer incorrect or harmful information. Users are strongly advised to be careful when using these technologies.

The Government is committed to delivering the cross-sector Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published in 2023, which identifies priority areas for action to reduce suicides, and we will explore opportunities to go further.

The Government is neutral on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Should Parliament choose to pass this bill it will not affect the Government’s commitment to the suicide prevention strategy.

The Government remains neutral on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. The Government’s discussions about the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill with devolved administrations have focused on the workability of the bill. This has included how the reporting and data sharing requirements on the face of the bill would apply, particularly in relation to Wales. These are technical discussions that are being held at an official level and have not covered what any arrangement would look like should the bill receive Royal Assent. As the Government is neutral on the bill, no decisions have been taken on the need for memoranda of understanding.

Should the bill gain Royal Assent, detailed work on a delivery model would need to be undertaken, which would include more detailed work on data sharing and reporting arrangements.

In England, the term ‘end-of-life care’ refers to the care given to those identified as likely to be in the last 12 months of their life.

Under the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) consumer duty, insurers must ensure that their products and claims processes deliver good outcomes for consumers. This includes those relating to terminal illness benefits. In October 2023, the FCA published a review of insurance companies’ approaches to terminal illness benefits, which is available on the FCA's website.

The findings from the review did not suggest that insurance firms are routinely delivering poor customer outcomes for terminal illness benefits. The review considered the requirement for a 12-month prognosis of death. The FCA concluded that it’s not clear that overall outcomes would be better for customers if insurers implemented a different time frame for the prognosis, for instance if policies required a diagnosis that the insured was likely to die within six months or 24 months, rather than 12 months. If the 12-month period was extended, it’s possible insurers would increase premiums to reflect increased risk. The FCA believes that insurance firms should be able to set their own policy terms by taking into account policy costs and the level of cover offered. The FCA suggested best practice was not to assume the 12-month requirement is appropriate without evidence that it meets customer needs.

The Government continues to monitor the FCA’s work in this area and supports its efforts to ensure that insurance products and claims processes meet the needs of terminally ill people.

The Department for Work and Pensions supports people nearing the end of life through the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). This enables people who are likely to have less than 12 months to live to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment or serve waiting periods. In most cases, they receive the highest rate of benefit. SREL applies to five key benefits that support people with health conditions or disabilities: Personal Independence Payment; Disability Living Allowance; Attendance Allowance; Universal Credit; and Employment and Support Allowance.

The new HIV Action Plan, published on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a dedicated action to deliver tailored and targeted HIV prevention, treatment, and care services to meet the needs of local populations and address inequalities, including the challenges of HIV testing in prisons.

HIV testing on entry into prison is part of a national programme of opt-out blood borne virus (BBV) testing which tests people for hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and HIV. Sexual health services in prisons are commissioned by NHS England under the Section 7a Public Health Functions Agreement with the Department. This sets out targets for this opt-out BBV testing programme, with an efficiency target of 50% testing uptake, and an optimal performance standard of 75% testing uptake.

While uptake of a BBV test has risen from 11% in 2016/17 to 72% overall in 2022/23, this is below the 75% target and there is variation by region and prison. To inform future progress we are supporting regional partners to complete and review the BBV and sexually transmitted infections prisons audit to understand provision of HIV prevention and care in prisons from primary care and sexual health services.

The 2024 to 2029 United Kingdom antimicrobial resistance (AMR) national action plan (NAP) includes research to improve understanding of AMR spread across humans, animals, agriculture, and the environment, to strengthen future AMR surveillance strategies.

The Environment Agency is conducting research into environmental transmission of AMR including monitoring novel forms of resistance, such as antifungal resistance and bioaerosols. The UK Health Security Agency’s modular ward will generate evidence on how the hospital environment contributes to the spread of AMR infection, with a focus on how risks associated with water and wastewater can be mitigated.

The Health Protection Research Unit on Healthcare Associated Infections and AMR led research on wastewater infrastructure in hospitals on AMR gene dissemination in humans and is exploring the impact of hospital wastewater in terms of perpetuating AMR.