Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, what steps he plans to take to ensure that people who need one will be able to get a same-day GP appointment.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through our 10-Year Health Plan, it will be easier and faster to see a general practitioner (GP). The 8:00am scramble will end, we will train more doctors, and we will guarantee digital consultations within 24 hours. We have delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an £889 million uplift, with GPs now receiving a growing share of National Health Service resources
In October 2024, we invested £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to support the recruitment of 1,900 individual GPs into primary care networks across England, which has expanded capacity, and will help to make same-day appointments more available to the patients that need them.
The new £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund will create additional clinical space within over 1,000 practices across England, enabling more appointments and supporting same-day access.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, if he will publish his Department’s assumptions of NHS productivity increases for the reduction in projected staff numbers in 2035 compared to the 2023 Long-Term Workforce Plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will publish our 10 Year Workforce Plan by the end of this year. The plan will set out the workforce needed to deliver the transformed service, and the key assumptions used in determining that workforce. That plan will set out assumptions about productivity used in determining projected staff numbers.
The approach set out in our 10-Year Health plan means that we will need a very different kind of workforce strategy. Instead of asking ‘how many staff do we need to maintain our current care model over the next 10 years?’, our new 10 Year Workforce Plan will ask ‘given our reform plan, what workforce do we need, what should they do, where should they be deployed, and what skills should they have?’
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the (a) cost of abolishing NHS England and (b) resulting redundancy package will be paid for from his Department’s settlement at the Spending Review 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have recently announced the Spending Review settlement, which provides an additional £29 billion of annual day-to-day spending in real terms by 2028/2029 compared to 2023/2024. Ahead of asking the National Health Service to commence a multi-year planning round, we are now carefully reviewing how the settlement is prioritised, including making provision for redundancy costs. At this stage, it is too early to say what the upfront costs of integration are, including any redundancy, while transition planning is ongoing.
While there will be some upfront costs, we expect the reform to eliminate duplication and drive a smaller centre, based in a single organisation, that will generate significant savings in the long run, which can be diverted to the front line.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the recovery pathways for the care of patients who have had a sudden cardiac arrest not related to myocardial infarction.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A cardiac arrest is caused by a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm, which occurs when the heart isn’t working properly and causes the heart to stop beating. Each year approximately 30,000 people receive resuscitation for an out of hospital cardiac arrest in the United Kingdom.
Only one in 10 people that have a cardiac arrest survive to go home from hospital. Fast and effective action will help save the lives of people suffering a cardiac arrest, as the chances of survival from a cardiac arrest that occurs out of hospital doubles if the person receives immediate resuscitation or a high energy shock to the heart, known as defibrillation.
The National Health Service committed to improving community first response and building defibrillator networks to help save 4,000 lives by 2028. This is being supported by educating the general public, including young people of school age, about how to recognise and respond to an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
NHS England is also working with partners such as the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to harness new technology and ensure the public and emergency services are able to rapidly locate this life saving equipment in an emergency.
Patients who survive cardiac arrest and their families are supported through referral to local NHS services, and this will include rehabilitation such as cardiac and neurological rehabilitation and mental health services for psychological support.
There are different pathways for cardiac arrest survivors, depending on the severity of the damage caused by the cardiac arrest. For people being discharged from secondary care and those with ischemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, cardiac rehabilitation services are available in every region.
In December 2024, to support local systems to commission high quality cardiac rehabilitation, NHS England published Commissioning standards for cardiac rehabilitation, which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/commissioning-standards-for-cardiovascular-rehabilitation/
These standards of care complement the British Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s Standards and Core Components document, published in 2023, to support the delivery of high-quality care and adherence to evidenced-based practice. Further information on the British Association of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation’s Standards and Core Components document is available at the following link:
The national audit for cardiac rehabilitation assesses practices against these standards of care and publishes the results annually, with the 2024 report available at the following link:
https://www.cardiacrehabilitation.org.uk/site/docs/NCP_CR%20Certification_Report_2024_Final.pdf
NHS England is committed to improving support for cardiac arrest survivor. NHS England has provided additional funding to all ICBs to increase the provision of cardiac rehabilitation across England, where clinically indicated patients can access cardiac rehabilitation following cardiac arrest.
For patients with more complex needs it may be appropriate for them to be referred to Level 1 or 2 inpatient specialist services for short term post-acute rehabilitation, which may be followed by specialist rehabilitation in the community as appropriate.
Patients and their families may also be signposted to appropriate charities such as the BHF’s Cardiac arrest webpage and the Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK’s website, with further information available on both, respectively, at the following two links:
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/conditions/cardiac-arrest
https://suddencardiacarrestuk.org/
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
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 impact of the information sharing duties in the (a) Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and (b) Crime and Policing Bill on GPs.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to improving information sharing across services to help safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education and the Home Office on their respective information sharing proposals, which are included in Department for Education’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the Home Office’s Crime and Policing Bill.
The information sharing proposals aim to establish a clear and consistent process to share information. To support the formulation and test the feasibility of these proposals, we have engaged with health stakeholders, including general practitioners, though a variety of forums. We will continue to engage with health stakeholders as we plan for the effective implementation of the use of the single unique identifier, the information sharing duty, and the child sexual abuse mandatory reporting duty.
The Department for Education has published an impact assessment on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-wellbeing-and-schools-bill-impact-assessments
The Home Office and the Ministry of Justice have published an impact assessment on the Crime and Policing Bill, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/crime-and-policing-bill-2025-impact-assessments
We will continue to support the departments leading on the respective bills to review and update these documents, once the bills have completed their passages through the House of Lords.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2025 to Question 57372 on Chagos Islands: Sovereignty, what the costs were to his Department of the Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
As set out by the Secretary of State in his statement on 22 May 2025, the Agreement is at a cost of less than 0.2% of the annual defence budget and secures a base which is vital for UK national security for over a century. It represents good value for UK taxpayers.
A bill to implement the Treaty was introduced by the Government to the House of Commons on 15 July 2025.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to ensure that decision making about the return of the BCSSS investment reserve can be made as swiftly as possible.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
I met the BCSSS Trustees on 22 April, 11 June and 22 July and confirmed the Government’s commitment to considering their proposals regarding the reserve and the future of the scheme. DESNZ will now engage HM Treasury with a view to agreeing a way forward on the transfer of the reserve to members.
I am aiming to reach agreement on an outcome that can be implemented later this year which will benefit scheme members.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future, published on 3 July 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of reducing the share of expenditure on hospital care on his Department's goal for 92 percent of patients to be treated within 18 weeks by 2029.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Elective Reform Plan (ERP) sets out the reform and productivity efforts needed to achieve the target that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by 2029. The ERP includes several efforts which will see care delivered differently. This includes addressing the challenges in diagnostic waiting times, providing the number of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and other tests that are needed to reduce elective and cancer waits. We will upgrade the NHS App, so patients can book and rearrange appointments, choose which hospital to be treated at, receive test results, and choose if they want to be seen in person or remotely.
The 10-Year Health Plan set out how we will take that further. At present, roughly 80% of all elective care does not require admitted treatment but takes place in outpatient settings, mostly in hospitals. By 2035, two thirds of this care will take place digitally or in the community closer to home, with patients able to access the best of their local hospital in a much more responsive way, such as via a local neighbourhood health centre or at home via digital channels. This will deliver more timely, efficient, and flexible care, which is better for patients and will mean we reduce the numbers joining the waiting lists in the first place.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to p.98 of the document entitled Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England, published on 3 July 2025, if he will list the training requirements identified as (a) irritating staff and (b) adding unnecessary burdens staff's working days.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan set out an action to review the amount of statutory and mandatory training that healthcare professionals are required to undertake. This follows a large national engagement exercise with members of the public and health and care staff. As part of this engagement, members of staff shared their poor experiences of mandatory training, citing that the training can be, repetitive or irrelevant to their role and takes them away from treating patients.
The exact amount of statutory and mandatory training completed varies, depending on which organisation they work for, their role or roles, and the frequency of their movement between organisations, for instance resident doctors rotating between organisations may have to repeat some of the training.
On average, it is estimated that nationally defined statutory and mandatory training takes up to eight hours or one day per person per year, and locally mandated training will add to this. This considerable investment of time must be balanced against the fact that this training is both important, for instance safety training and emergency preparedness training, and often required by law.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2025 to Question 61898 on Railways: Midlands, whether any funding announced in the Spending Review 2025 has been allocated to support Network Rail's work to develop a business case for later phases of the Midlands Rail Hub between Birmingham and destinations in Leicestershire.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The first phase of Midlands Rail Hub (‘Western’ scope) would enable additional trains each hour between Birmingham and South Wales and the South West, and on Birmingham’s Cross City Line. This includes extending Chiltern services from Moor Street to Snow Hill station by improving connectivity across the region. The costs and delivery timescales for later phases are subject to further development work and subsequent investment decisions.