Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of deaths from late diagnosis of prostate cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department remains committed to diagnosing all cancer types earlier, including prostate cancer. We recognise that there is more to be done to ensure that patients have timely access to diagnosis and treatment.
To combat late diagnosis, the Government is investing £16 million towards the Prostate Cancer UK-led TRANSFORM screening trial, which is seeking to find ways to catch prostate cancer in men as early as possible.
The Department will publish a National Cancer Plan which will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients in England, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, and ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology. The overarching goal is to drive up this country’s cancer survival rates and provide a National Health Service that is there when you need it.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce delays in adult social care assessments for hospital discharge.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Urgent and Emergency Care plan for 2025/26, published by NHS England, has set a priority that hospitals should tackle the delays in patients waiting to be discharged. The plan asks systems to set local performance targets by discharge pathway and eliminate internal discharge delays of more than 48 hours in all settings.
For 2025/26, £9 billion is available through the Better Care Fund to provide services, including those which help reduce delayed discharges. All health and wellbeing boards are required to set goals to reduce discharge delays, which will be used to monitor performance and drive accountability throughout 2025/26.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron (HL7383), whether they plan to develop NHS App functionality to allow patients to nominate a distance selling pharmacy directly within the app.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to allow patients to directly nominate a distance selling pharmacy (DSP) from within the NHS App. Patients can continue to nominate a DSP through existing routes, which currently provide a more seamless patient experience.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 December 2025 to Question 18835 on Pharmacy and with reference to the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework: 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026, published on 31 March 2025, whether he plans to respond to the consultation entitled Pharmacy supervision; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of changing the policy requiring a pharmacist to be present for bagged medication to be handed over on pharmacy costs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will shortly publish its response to the public consultation entitled Pharmacy Supervision. An impact assessment will be published alongside draft legislation, on the legislation.GOV.UK website, at the following link:
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much they will allocate to the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme (1) next year, and (2) for each year of the Spending Review 2025 (CP 1336).
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan confirmed that we will expand the Graduate Management Trainee Scheme by 50%, to ensure we attract the best and brightest talent. Alongside that, we will increase its diversity and reform it to focus on the three shifts and system working. National Health Service employers and contractors will be required to facilitate the scheme as part of their core business.
Funding has been allocated for an expansion of the Graduate Management Training Scheme as part of the Spending Review. Further detail will be set out in the forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan.
Asked by: David Smith (Labour - North Northumberland)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Neighbourhood Health Service on dental services in rural constituencies.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 3 July 2025, the Government announced the 10-Year Health Plan and set out its vision for a Neighbourhood Health Service set up in local communities across the country, to improve access to National Health Services, including NHS dental services.
We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations. We will be clear on the outcomes we expect, and will give significant licence to tailor the approach to local need.
Our priority will be to address underperformance and health inequalities in the areas with the worst health outcomes, such as rural and coastal communities, where we know access to healthcare services is often particularly poor.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on expanding the pharmacy workforce.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To support employers in developing their staff and delivering quality National Health Services, NHS England provides a number of fully funded national training opportunities for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. This includes independent prescriber training, clinical examination skills, and training the next generation of education supervisors.
Later this year, we will publish a new workforce plan to ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England provides funding to GP practices to carry out blood tests requested by (a) hospitals and (b) specialists.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We understand the pressures that general practices (GPs) are facing, which is why we are investing an additional £889 million into GPs, to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, in 2025/26. The independent review body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) has recommended an uplift of 4% to the pay ranges for salaried GPs, and to GP contractor pay. As with last year, we are accepting the DDRB’s pay recommendation, and we will provide a 4% uplift to the pay elements of the GP Contract on a consolidated basis, on top of the provisional 2.8% uplift already provided, to bring it up to 4%. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes.
The Red Tape Challenge, launched by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and NHS England’s Chief Executive Officer, will also aim to address challenges seen by services between primary and secondary care interface. This work and investment will support the move from the hospital to the community, one of the three fundamental shifts set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.
Local enhanced services, such as blood tests, are negotiated and agreed locally, and are commissioned by integrated care boards to fit the needs of the local population. GPs can choose whether or not they would like to participate in directly providing these services. These services can vary in scope and funding across the country.
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are supporting one of the Government’s top priorities for health, to shift care from the hospital to the community. CDCs offer local populations a wide range of diagnostic tests, including phlebotomy, closer to home and allow for greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, whilst also reducing pressure on the system. We will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new ones, as well as increasing the number of CDCs offering services 12 hours per day, seven days a week.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has received representations from GP practices on workload for non-primary care blood tests.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We understand the pressures that general practices (GPs) are facing, which is why we are investing an additional £889 million into GPs, to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, in 2025/26. The independent review body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB) has recommended an uplift of 4% to the pay ranges for salaried GPs, and to GP contractor pay. As with last year, we are accepting the DDRB’s pay recommendation, and we will provide a 4% uplift to the pay elements of the GP Contract on a consolidated basis, on top of the provisional 2.8% uplift already provided, to bring it up to 4%. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes.
The Red Tape Challenge, launched by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and NHS England’s Chief Executive Officer, will also aim to address challenges seen by services between primary and secondary care interface. This work and investment will support the move from the hospital to the community, one of the three fundamental shifts set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.
Local enhanced services, such as blood tests, are negotiated and agreed locally, and are commissioned by integrated care boards to fit the needs of the local population. GPs can choose whether or not they would like to participate in directly providing these services. These services can vary in scope and funding across the country.
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are supporting one of the Government’s top priorities for health, to shift care from the hospital to the community. CDCs offer local populations a wide range of diagnostic tests, including phlebotomy, closer to home and allow for greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, whilst also reducing pressure on the system. We will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new ones, as well as increasing the number of CDCs offering services 12 hours per day, seven days a week.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to introduce free personal care for (a) elderly and (b) disabled residents in West Dorset constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities have the power to charge for care, and it is for them to decide whether to do so. Two local authorities in England currently offer free home care to their residents.
Where local authorities do choose to charge for care, they must do so in accordance with the Care Act 2014 and the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014, and they must act under the Care and Support Statutory guidance.
We have launched an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.
The commission, which began work in April 2025, will be comprehensive and will build on the expert proposals of other reviews, including that of Sir Andrew Dilnot into care funding and support.