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 March 2025 to Question 32470 on Radiotherapy: Medical Equipment, if he will publish the funding allocation for the investment for replacing older radiotherapy machines.

Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England has written to those trusts which have been allocated funding for replacement radiotherapy machines. There remain no plans to publish full details of the funding allocation.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the abolition of NHS England on the coordination of screening programmes.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by James Mackey, to lead this transformation. As we work to return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department, we will ensure that we continue to evaluate impacts of all kinds.

The abolition of NHS England will strip out the unnecessary bureaucracy and cut the duplication that comes from having two organisations doing the same job; we will empower staff to focus on delivering better care for patients, driving productivity up and getting waiting times down.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the abolition of NHS England on the timing of the publication of the NHS 10-year plan.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We do not envisage that the changes set out by the Prime Minister on 13 March 2025 will affect the publication of the 10-Year Health Plan. We still intend to publish the Plan later in spring 2025.

The changes will set the National Health Service up to deliver on the three big shifts needed to make the service fit for the future: from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what independent bodies are part of NHS England.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England is currently an executive non-departmental public body which is sponsored by the Department. In the last 10 years, NHS England has taken on the functions of what were once separate arm’s length bodies, including NHS Improvement, NHS Digital and Health Education England.

As announced on 13 March 2025, NHS England will be brought into the Department. This will be done in the first instance by administrative means and will be followed by legislation to abolish NHS England once Parliamentary time allows.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what NHS England's functions are; and which (a) existing and (b) new Government bodies will take those functions on.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England is being abolished as an arm’s length body and being brought back into the department. Ministers will work with the new transformation team at the top of NHS England, led by Sir James Mackey, to lead this transformation and return many of NHS England’s current functions to the Department.

The functions of NHS England are set out in legislation, these include but are not limited to:

- Commissioning services in the National Health Service;

- The establishment, oversight and support of integrated care boards;

- The oversight and support of NHS trusts and foundation trusts;

- Designing, developing and operating national digital and technology products and services and disseminate data to support the health and care system;

- Planning, recruiting, educating and training the health workforce; and

- Overseeing and promoting the use of research and innovation within the health service.

The team will be focussed on ensuring that layers of bureaucracy are cut and more resources flow to the frontline as well as grasping the untapped potential of the NHS as a single payer public service, to get cutting-edge technology and treatments into the hands of staff and patients much faster and secure a better deal for taxpayers.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 November 2024 to Question 12286 on Pension Credit: Uptake, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the complexity of the Pension Credit application form.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

As the Department continues to modernise the Pension Credit service, we review the user experience, balancing simplification of application with capturing the right information to ensure accuracy of award. A key objective of DWP’s Service Modernisation Programme is to utilise end user research to understand how the application process should operate in the future and consider the opportunities on how services can be more user friendly and easily accessible for citizens. To that end we are streamlining all Pension Credit application routes by using information held internally to reduce the number of questions the citizen must answer.

Claims for Pension Credit can be made online, by telephone or by post. By far, the most popular way to claim is online where a claim can be made 24/7 with the help of a family member, a friend or a third party. The online claim form means it now takes just 16 minutes on average to complete, with 90 per cent of new customers applying using the simple online form, or over the phone.

With the telephone service, the caller will be guided through the claim process. We will keep the Pension Credit application process under review.

Humanitarian response to the Myanmar earthquake

Bank closures

Building consensus on a pathway to spending 3% of GDP on defence

Wellbeing benefits of outdoor education to young people

SEND in schools

Banking hubs

Sharrington phone box

Honouring the life of Ray Merlin Rutter

The Alban Bun

Scams and fraud

International Space Station

Support for young disabled people after education

Access to football pitches for women and girls

Ensuring stability for Ukrainian refugees in the UK

Second anniversary of Eco Action Hub for Maidenhead and Windsor

Support for the World Health Organization

Radiotherapy (No. 2)

Found: Negatived on division_NC10 Steve Darling Sarah Gibson Daisy Cooper Clive Jones Munira Wilson Olly