Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 5 January 2026 to Question 89382 on Social Services: Investment, whether his Department plans to consider the (a) previous and (b) forecast (i) levels and (ii) adequacy of (A) private and (B) public sector capital funding in social care in England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government will consider the capital funding needs of adult social care as part of the next Spending Review. We have recently announced an additional £50 million for the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) in 2025/26. This could fund approximately 5,000 home adaptations supporting older and disabled people to live more independently in their homes, and brings the total DFG amount this year to £761 million. We have also confirmed £723 million for the DFG in 2026/27. The DFG budget across 2025/26 and 2026/27 is £150 million more than the total budget across the previous two years, 2023/24 and 2024/25. This represents an 11% increase that exceeds inflation.
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes assessing current and future local provision of adult social care services and working with their local market to ensure that both present and anticipated demand can be met.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 5 January 2026 to Question 89382 on Social Services: Investment, whether his Department plans to (a) increase public sector funding and (b) incentivise private sector investment in social care in England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are progressing towards a National Care Service based on greater choice and control, joined up services, and higher quality of care, with over £4.6 billion of additional funding available for adult social care by 2028/29 compared to 2025/26. We have no direct plans designed to incentivise private investment.
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people and are responsible for deciding how they spend the funding made available to them for adult social care, unless it is ringfenced for a particular purpose.
While private adult social care providers are individual businesses and the Government does not intervene in their operations, we have been clear that the expectation is for adult social care providers to behave responsibly, including through sustainable financial arrangements that support the sector and meet need as required.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 5 January 2026 to Question 89382 on Social Services: Investment, what assessment his Department has made of the main barriers to (a) public sector funding and (b) private sector capital investment in social care; and what regional variations are there.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government assesses the funding required for adult social care, which considers a wide range of factors. This assessment is considered alongside other Government priorities through the Spending Review process to inform decisions about how available public sector funding is distributed.
Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes commissioning a diverse range of care and support services that enable people to access quality care. Conditions in local care markets can vary across the country and local authorities are best placed to understand and respond to these local market conditions. The Department has not carried out a specific assessment on the barriers to private sector capital investment in social care and any regional variations. While private adult social care providers are individual businesses and the Government does not intervene in their operations, we have been clear that the expectation is for adult social care providers to behave responsibly, including through sustainable financial arrangements that support the sector and meet needs as required.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS 10 Year Plan, what steps his Department is taking to to double the level of CT and MRI scanner capacity; and what plans he has to develop stronger and more structured partnerships with industry to tackle barriers to modernisation and to accelerate diagnostic innovation.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to bring down the size of the list and reduce waiting times, including investment in new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scanners. Speeding up waiting times for diagnostic tests is a crucial part of reducing overall waiting times and returning to the referral to treatment 18-week standard.
The 2025 Spending Review confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment over five years across new diagnostic, elective, and urgent care capacity. This includes £600 million in capital funding for diagnostics in 2025/26 to support delivery of the NHS performance standards. This funding will deliver new community diagnostic centres, including new MRI and CT scanners, new scanners in acute hospital settings, as well as replacements of the oldest CT and MRI scanners. Further details and allocations will be set out in due course.
The Health Innovation Network (HIN) fosters partnerships with industry and the NHS to accelerate the evaluation, adoption, and spread of health innovations, including diagnostics. This is why the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan make explicit commitments to continue funding and empowering the HIN.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the funding for local authority stop smoking services announced in the National Cancer Plan is a one‑off allocation for 2026-27.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
To help people quit, the Government has invested an additional £70 million in both 2024/25 and 2025/26 to support local authority led Stop Smoking Services in England. We are already seeing the impact this has made, as the first year of additional funding, 2024/25, resulted in a 23% increase in the number of people supported to quit compared to the previous year, 2023/24.
From April, we are investing an additional £260 million over three years, from 2026/27 to 2028/29, in Stop Smoking Services within the Public Health Grant, meaning at least £150 million per year will be ringfenced for these services. This will give local authorities greater certainty on their funding for the next three years.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to set out national quality standards for rehabilitation for all people with cancer within cancer manuals, alongside those for prehabilitation announced in the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The National Cancer Plan will redesign cancer services around people’s lives, not just around hospitals, recognising that more people are living for longer with and beyond cancer and need ongoing, coordinated support. To achieve this aim, the plan committed to the development of new standards for both prehabilitation and rehabilitation through cancer manuals by 2028.
Through the National Cancer Plan’s implementation, more cancer care and support will be delivered closer to home, including a universal digital-first prehabilitation offer, expanded supportive oncology, greater use of virtual monitoring, and growing opportunities for treatment and follow-up in community settings where safe and appropriate.
For patients who have more extensive needs and who will require more support to live well, the National Health Service will deliver an enhanced level of care during and after treatment, known as supportive oncology. This will include enhanced rehabilitation, psychological support, and preventative interventions, such as physical activity and smoking cessation. Additionally, it will include acute oncology, support for severe and sometimes sudden symptoms, that means people can get rapid access to the right care in their home or community where appropriate.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to ensure equitable cancer research funding across the country.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests £1.6 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Cancer is a major area of NIHR spending at £141.6 million in 2024/25, reflecting its high priority.
NIHR research infrastructure has national coverage for the whole of England. Our infrastructure schemes aim to build research capacity and capability across all geographies, settings, and disease areas, including understanding disease biology, patient access to novel treatments, and dedicated spaces for medicine studies.
In addition, through the NIHR 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. The RDN also provides health research delivery investment that better enables trial access across wider care settings, including primary care, community-based, and residential research delivery organisations. In 2024/25 the RDN supported over 1,200 cancer studies, including the recruitment of almost 100,000 patients to cancer studies.
The NIHR continues to encourage and welcome applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including all cancer types.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to develop the universal, digital‑first prehabilitation offer for people with cancer in the National Cancer Plan into a fully structured, personalised, community‑based offer of both prehabilitation and rehabilitation for all people with cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton
The National Cancer Plan will redesign cancer services around people’s lives, not just around hospitals, recognising that more people are living for longer with and beyond cancer and need ongoing, coordinated support. To achieve this aim, the plan committed to the development of new standards for both prehabilitation and rehabilitation through cancer manuals by 2028.
Through the National Cancer Plan’s implementation, more cancer care and support will be delivered closer to home, including a universal digital-first prehabilitation offer, expanded supportive oncology, greater use of virtual monitoring, and growing opportunities for treatment and follow-up in community settings where safe and appropriate.
For patients who have more extensive needs and who will require more support to live well, the National Health Service will deliver an enhanced level of care during and after treatment, known as supportive oncology. This will include enhanced rehabilitation, psychological support, and preventative interventions, such as physical activity and smoking cessation. Additionally, it will include acute oncology, support for severe and sometimes sudden symptoms, that means people can get rapid access to the right care in their home or community where appropriate.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a Government-backed social care investment fund to offer low-cost loans to support the development of the (a) infrastructure and (b) services of not-for-profit care providers, including digital approaches to (i) social care services and (ii) back-office functions; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of capital investment in social care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
A Government-backed social care investment fund is not an idea that we are currently considering. Funding for adult social care is provided by central Government to local authorities through the Local Government Finance Settlement. The Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26, to support the sector in making improvements. Local authorities have discretion over how to best use this funding in order to meet the diverse needs of all local people.
We know that digital transformation has the potential to drive improvement in adult social care, improving experiences and outcomes for people seeking and receiving care. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is funding projects that support the adoption and use of advanced technologies in social care settings. DSIT’s £44 million 5G Innovation Regions Programme has funded ten regions across the United Kingdom to demonstrate the benefits of adopting technologies and solutions that rely on advanced connectivity services in a range of sectors, including health and social care.
The Department has not carried out a specific assessment on the adequacy level of capital investment in social care.
To build consensus on plans for a National Care Service, Baroness Casey is chairing an Independent Commission to shape the medium- and longer-term reforms needed, with phase 1 reporting next year. Details about how to engage with the Commission are available at the following link:
https://caseycommission.co.uk/
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
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 merits of collecting data on the number of attempted suicides attended by ambulance staff.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Brigg and Immingham on 1 December 2025, to Question 84585.