Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to reply to the correspondence from the Rt hon. Member for Braintree of 27 August 2025.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I have received the hon. Member’s letter and I have responded.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding his Department provided to Kent County Council for public health activities in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26; and whether the Council is required to use those funds to promote child vaccinations.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care allocated public health funding to Kent County Council of £86.6 million in 2024/25 and £91.3 million in 2025/26, which consists of:
Total DHSC Public Health Funding to Kent County Council, £ | 2024/25 | 2025/26 |
Public Health Grant | 77,308,935 | 82,039,842 |
Drugs and Alcohol Treatment and recovering funding1 | 5,570,725 | 5,584,314 |
Start for Life Grant | 1,755,000 | 1,799,600 |
Stop Smoking Services | 1,944,823 | 1,891,779 |
Total | 86,579,483 | 91,315,535 |
[1] Includes contributions from the Department for Work and Pensions for individual placement and support funding and from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for rough sleeping drug and alcohol treatment funding which are transferred to the Department of Health and Social Care, and paid out via Department of Health and Social Care grants.
Core funding for local authorities’ public health responsibilities is provided through the Public Health Grant. Local authorities are responsible for deciding how best to use this funding in support of their public health responsibilities. There is no specific requirement for them to use it to support access to National Health Service childhood immunisations, but local authority funded services may play an active role in promoting uptake of childhood vaccinations – for example through local authority-commissioned health visiting services that may advise parents on childhood vaccinations.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 mitigate the loss of the AI auto-contouring technology tool for cancer treatment planning.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including artificial intelligence where it is beneficial to do so.
As the Department focuses on shifting from analogue to digital, we will continue to review opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to speed up diagnostic performance, bring down waiting times, and ultimately improve patient care and outcomes.
Furthermore, any future spending commitments beyond 2025/26 will be determined through the next phase of the Spending Review process, which will conclude in June.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the withdrawal of funding for AI auto-contouring technology on patient care.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including artificial intelligence where it is beneficial to do so.
As the Department focuses on shifting from analogue to digital, we will continue to review opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to speed up diagnostic performance, bring down waiting times, and ultimately improve patient care and outcomes.
Furthermore, any future spending commitments beyond 2025/26 will be determined through the next phase of the Spending Review process, which will conclude in June.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS cancer trusts are (a) delivering radiotherapy contouring planning manually and (b) using AI auto contouring for radiotherapy.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England undertook a baseline assessment of artificially intelligent (AI) auto-contouring systems in summer 2024 which indicated that, at that time, 39 trusts had some AI arrangements in place.
The use of AI auto contouring technology to plan for treatments is not always suitable, useful, or available for all areas of the body, therefore, the actual percentage of cases where AI technology was used is not known.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has for future funding of AI auto-contouring technology.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Any future spending commitments beyond 2025/26 will be determined through the next phase of the Spending Review process, which will conclude in June.
The Department continuously supports the National Health Service in reviewing opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence (AI) to transform diagnostic performance, bring down waiting times, and supporting staff with their workload.
Furthermore, the Department is carrying out work to assess the barriers of effective adoption and improve the way AI tools are deployed across the NHS through a number of initiatives, including the NHS AI Lab’s Ethics Initiative, which invests in research and practical interventions that could strengthen the ethical adoption of AI within health and care and addresses risks and concerns over their use.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 reduce waiting times for cancer treatment, in the context of the withdrawal of funding for AI auto-contouring technology.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will improve National Health Service cancer waiting time performance, so patients are diagnosed and treated faster. We will also improve cancer survival rates by diagnosing cancers at an earlier stage.
We will build on recent successes, including the roll out of the Lung Screening programme, to diagnose cancer earlier and boost survival rates.
Furthermore, the recently announced National Cancer Plan will set out key goals and actions to improve on cancer waiting time performance and survival rates.
The Department supports the NHS in reviewing opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to transform performance, bring down waiting times, and improve survival rates.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to improve cancer survival rates, in the context of the withdrawal of funding for AI auto-contouring.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will improve National Health Service cancer waiting time performance, so patients are diagnosed and treated faster. We will also improve cancer survival rates by diagnosing cancers at an earlier stage.
We will build on recent successes, including the roll out of the Lung Screening programme, to diagnose cancer earlier and boost survival rates.
Furthermore, the recently announced National Cancer Plan will set out key goals and actions to improve on cancer waiting time performance and survival rates.
The Department supports the NHS in reviewing opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to transform performance, bring down waiting times, and improve survival rates.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the withdrawal of funding for AI auto-contouring technology on (a) cancer treatment waiting times, (b) patient outcomes and (c) the workload of NHS cancer specialists; and whether he has considered alternative funding mechanisms for the rollout of that technology.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department supports the National Health Service in reviewing opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence (AI) to transform diagnostic performance, bring down waiting times, and support staff with their workload.
Furthermore, the Department is carrying out work to assess the barriers of effective adoption and improve the way AI tools are deployed across the NHS through a number of initiatives, including the NHS AI Lab’s Ethics Initiative, which invests in research and practical interventions that could strengthen the ethical adoption of AI within health and care, and addresses risks and concerns over their use.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
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 help improve early breast cancer diagnosis.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including breast cancer, is a priority for the Government. The National Health Service will hit all cancer waiting time targets, so that no patient waits longer than they should.
As the first step to ensure faster diagnosis, the NHS is delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week. To support early detection and diagnosis, the NHS in England carries out approximately two million breast cancer screens each year in hospitals and mobile screening vans, usually in convenient community locations.
All women between 50 and 71 years old have the opportunity to be screened every three years for breast cancer, to help detect abnormalities and intervene early to reduce the number of lives lost. Additionally, United Kingdom guidelines recommend that women with a moderate or high risk of breast cancer, because of their family history, should start having screening mammograms every year in their forties.
On World Cancer Day, the Government announced a major world-leading trial to demonstrate whether artificial intelligence (AI) can help doctors catch breast cancer earlier to enable faster treatment and save more lives, while freeing up valuable resources and capacity. Thirty testing sites across the country will be enhanced with the latest digital AI technologies, ready to invite women already booked in for routine screenings on the NHS to take part.