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 ensure that NHS dementia and care homes are adequately (a) staffed and (b) resourced.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Our health system has struggled to support those with complex needs, including those with dementia. Under the 10-Year Health Plan, those living with dementia will benefit from improved care planning and better services. We will deliver the first ever Modern Service framework for Frailty and Dementia 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.

English local authorities have responsibility under the Care Act 2014 to meet social care needs and statutory guidance directs them to ensure there is sufficient workforce in adult social care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and social care in England and assesses local authorities' delivery of their adult social care duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. The specific Care Act functions assessed by the CQC are set out in regulations under the Health and Care Act 2022.

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Regulation 18 states that providers must deploy “sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff to enable them to meet the needs of the people using the service at all times”. Where the CQC finds a breach in this regulation, it can take regulatory action to ensure the safety of people drawing on care and support.

The Government recognises the scale of reforms needed to make the adult social care sector attractive, to support sustainable workforce growth and improve the retention of the domestic workforce. We want the people who work in care to be respected as professionals, and work is already underway to provide a career structure, give care professionals greater skills and legislate for the first ever Fair Pay Agreements.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of dementia care.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Our health system has struggled to support those with complex needs, including those with dementia. Under the 10-Year Health Plan, those living with dementia will benefit from improved care planning and better services.

We will deliver the first ever Modern Service framework for Frailty and Dementia 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 Government is committed to improving dementia care and empowering local leaders with the autonomy they need to provide the best services to their local community, including those with dementia.

That is why we published the D100: Assessment Tool Pathway programme earlier this year, which brings together multiple resources into a single, consolidated tool. This will help simplify best practice for system leaders and help create communities and services where the best possible care and support is available to those with dementia. The D100: Pathway Assessment Tool is available at the following link:

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improving-care/nccmh/service-design-and-development/dementia-100-pathway-assessment-tool

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 ensure the consistency of the quality of care in England.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for ensuring the quality of care in England. It assesses all health and social care service providers registered with the CQC for compliance against the statutory standards set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. It also assesses how well local authorities deliver adult social care by looking at their performance against their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. The CQC takes enforcement action against a provider for non-compliance.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out new statutory and non-statutory measures and clearer accountability to ensure transparency on quality of care. The CQC’s statutory powers will be extended to access all publicly held data relating directly or indirectly to care quality. Non-statutory measures include revitalising the National Quality Board and having it develop a new quality strategy by March 2026.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department are taking to ensure the effectiveness of the (a) monitoring of and (b) improvements to dementia care.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Our health system has struggled to support those with complex needs, including those with dementia. Under the 10-Year Health Plan, those living with dementia will benefit from improved care planning and better services. We will deliver the first ever Modern Service framework for Frailty and Dementia to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity.

To strengthen both local and national insight into dementia care, enable clearer benchmarking, and support the delivery of more timely, targeted, and person-centred support, NHS England continues to monitor the monthly dementia diagnosis rate and analyse trends at national, regional and integrated care board level. The commitment to recover diagnosis rates to the national ambition of 66.7% remains in place, ensuring identification and appropriate support for people living with dementia.

In addition, NHS England is actively looking to improve the clinical utility and relevance of dementia data reporting. This includes, firstly, enhancing primary care reporting through ongoing refinement of indicators and coding approaches.

Notably, a new measure was introduced in April 2025 capturing the number of people with dementia who have experienced delirium in the past 12 months. This will support systems and providers to better understand variation in care provision, improve risk stratification, and strengthen care planning.

NHS England is also exploring improvements in the Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS) to ensure activity within Memory Assessment Services is more fully reflected in available data. Work is underway with the NHS England analyst team to scope options for developing more meaningful coverage and consistency in memory service reporting.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with stakeholders on preventing microplastics from infiltrating agricultural land.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

There are several potential ways in which microplastics which can infiltrate agricultural land and the wider environment. These include fallout from the atmosphere, land connections with surface waters and industrial premises, leaks from septic tanks and landfill sites, and possible leaching from the application of treated sewage sludge to agricultural soils. Once microplastics have entered the soil, many factors will influence their movement, such as soil type, the type of crop and the presence of livestock.

To better understand the transmission of microplastics through the application to the land of sewage sludge containing biosolids, Defra officials are collaborating with industry and independent researchers under the water industry-funded Chemicals Investigation Programme. This work will help inform possible and future measures to mitigate microplastics in the environment. We discuss the progress of this work on a frequent basis.

Joe's Day campaign

Food waste

National Star College

Carers and social care reform

Funding and support for SEND

Government policy on the Hillsborough Law

Found: Stephenson (Conservative; Mid Bedfordshire) Alison Taylor (Labour; Paisley and Renfrewshire North) Cameron Thomas