Caroline Dinenage

Information relating to Pension Credit eligibility is only available via take-up statistics. The latest available Pension Credit take-up statistics for Great Britain cover the financial year 2021 to 2022 and are available at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year ending 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). However, these statistics are only available at Great Britain level and cannot be broken down to smaller geographical areas.

As set out in the King’s Speech, in this parliamentary session, we will bring forward the necessary final guidance and secondary legislation to restrict advertisements of less healthy food and drink products before 9:00pm on television, and all paid-for advertising of these products online, to ensure the legislation comes into force as planned by 1 October 2025.

The adult social care workforce provides vital care and support to people of all ages and with diverse needs, including those with dementia. Care workers are essential to those who draw on care and support, helping them maintain their quality of life, independence, and connection to the things that matter to them.

No specific assessment has been made of the adequacy of dementia training for the adult social care workforce, but as we develop a long-term plan for social care, those working in social care will be at the heart of our reforms. We will outline further plans for social care workforce reform in due course.

The work on the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce has been paused. We are in the process of considering next steps for taking forward the Taskforce’s work.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges patients face when trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term and increase access to NHS dental care, we will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

From 1 April 2023, the responsibility for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to all integrated care boards across England.

Patients unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through an NHS dental practice are advised to contact NHS 111 for assistance. NHS dentists are now required to update their NHS website profiles at least every 90 days to ensure patients have access to up-to-date information on where they can access care.

At this stage, as the University of Portsmouth is not a dental school, no plans have been made to allocate new dentistry training places.

Before a university, such as the University of Portsmouth, can apply to receive Government funded dental school places, it needs to have met the requirements of the General Dental Council. If established as a dental school, Portsmouth Dental School would be eligible to be considered for Government-funded training places, subject to meeting the requirements of the Office for Students, who have statutory responsibility for allocating funding for medical and dental school places.

Plans for the Haslar IRC will be set out in due course.

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary are highly valued, specialist personnel who play a critical role in delivering the UK’s defence outputs.

We are committed to listening to their concerns and keeping a continued dialogue to address the issues they have raised.