Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 merits of opening a dedicated clinic for nuclear test veterans.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are currently no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of a dedicated clinic for nuclear test veterans.
All veterans, including those affected by nuclear testing are able to access a range of National Health Services to meet their clinical needs. British nuclear test veterans who are concerned about their heath should discuss this with their general practitioner.
Over 99.6% of primary care networks in England have at least one general practice accredited under the veteran friendly scheme which raises awareness of the specific needs of veterans.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that the patient and public voice model remains independent of the bodies commissioning, delivering or redesigning services.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The priority of our reforms around patient and public voice is not to maintain the current independent structures, but to strengthen the patient and public voices so that they drive real change and improvement at all levels of the health and social care system. We are doing this by bringing patient and public voices closer to decision-makers, rather than by keeping it at arms-length, so what people say cannot be ignored and has a more direct impact on services.
At a local level, we are placing responsibility for listening to patients and the public with the organisations that plan and deliver services, namely local authorities for social care, and integrated care boards for healthcare. At the national level, we are bringing patient voice into the Department, through a new Patient Experience Directorate, where it can drive real change.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the MS Society and Neurological Alliance’s report entitled Neurological Conditions: The Case for a Modern Service Framework, published in May 2026, what steps he has taken to ensure there is national accountability and sustained focus on (a) MS and (b) all neurological conditions.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In August 2025, NHS England updated its service specification for specialised adult neurology services, following extensive consultation. The service specification includes guidance on both the specialised and core neurology services that should be available for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and those with neurological conditions more broadly. The service specification outlines that specialised neurology centres must include access to treatment services for MS and have clear pathways for access to disease-modifying therapies. The service specification is available at the following link:
The Government is taking forward work to improve neurological services through national programmes like NHS England’s Getting it Right First Time Programme and the RightCare Progressive Neurological Conditions Toolkit, which aim to reduce variation and deliver more coordinated, person‑centred care.
The Government will continue to consider evidence and proposals to improve care for people with neurological conditions as part of wider health system reforms, including those set out in our 10-Year Health Plan.
As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is developing a programme of modern service frameworks (MSFs) which will define an aspirational, long-term outcome goal for a major condition and then identify the best evidenced interventions and the support for delivery. The first wave was agreed as cardiovascular disease, sepsis, and severe mental illness. The second wave has now been agreed as frailty and dementia, children and young people, and palliative care and end of life care.
The Government will consider other long-term conditions for future waves of MSFs. The criteria for determining future MSFs will be based on where there is potential for rapid and significant improvements in the quality of care and productivity.
We welcome the joint report published by the MS Society and the Neurological Alliance and will carefully consider the case that the report makes for an MSF for neurological conditions.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS Workforce Plan will include workforce benchmarking data for integrated care systems and NHS trusts, including Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, to enable assessment of safe staffing requirements.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will put the National Health Service workforce on a sustainable footing so it can deliver the service model set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.
We will not pre-empt the publication of the plan. Details will be set out when it is published.
Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual NHS employers. NHS trusts manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will publish the NHS 10-Year Workforce Plan before workforce reductions are implemented across NHS trusts, including Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will put the National Health Service workforce on a sustainable footing so it can deliver the service model set out in the 10-Year Health Plan.
We will not pre-empt the publication of the plan. Details will be set out when it is published.
Decisions about recruitment are matters for individual NHS employers. NHS trusts manage their recruitment at a local level, ensuring they have the right number of staff in place, with the right skill mix, to deliver safe and effective care.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to guarantee that NHS dentistry benefits proportionately from any additional NHS funding secured in future Spending Reviews.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The financial pressures and the cost of new commitments for the National Health Service are analysed as part of the Spending Review process. The 2025 Spending Review sets departmental budgets for day-to-day spending up to 2028/29 and for capital for five years to 2029/30. This level of funding growth is intended to support the NHS in delivering the Government’s priorities, including commitments set out in the Government’s Plan for Change. It aims to ensure that by the end of the current Parliament, 92% of patients will begin consultant led treatment for non-urgent conditions within 18 weeks of referral. Further detail is provided at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document/spending-review-2025-html
The Government has committed to hold a Spending Review every two years. The process for the next Spending Review, due to be held in 2027, will be set in due course.
The Government wants to ensure that every penny we allocate for dentistry is spent on dentistry, and that the ringfenced dental budget is spent on the patients who need it most.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS dentistry funding will keep pace with inflation and population growth across the current Spending Review period.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The financial pressures and the cost of new commitments for the National Health Service are analysed as part of the Spending Review process. The 2025 Spending Review sets departmental budgets for day-to-day spending up to 2028/29 and for capital for five years to 2029/30. This level of funding growth is intended to support the NHS in delivering the Government’s priorities, including commitments set out in the Government’s Plan for Change. It aims to ensure that by the end of the current Parliament, 92% of patients will begin consultant led treatment for non-urgent conditions within 18 weeks of referral. Further detail is provided at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document/spending-review-2025-html
The Government has committed to hold a Spending Review every two years. The process for the next Spending Review, due to be held in 2027, will be set in due course.
The Government wants to ensure that every penny we allocate for dentistry is spent on dentistry, and that the ringfenced dental budget is spent on the patients who need it most.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 transferring adult social care responsibilities from Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust to Torbay Council on the workforce.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Care Act 2014 sets out how adult social care in England should be provided, including legal duties on local authorities to ensure the care workforce is competent, skilled, and safe.
Whilst we have not made a direct assessment of the potential impact transferring adult social care responsibilities from the Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust to Torbay Council will have on the workforce, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has a duty under the Health and Care Act 2022 to assess local authorities’ delivery of their adult social care duties. Torbay was assessed in December 2025, and their report is available at the following link:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/care-services/local-authority-assessment-reports/torbay-1225
In April 2026, the CQC published an updated approach to how they assess local authorities, moving more towards a flexible, risk-based approach which will support them to respond proportionately to the circumstances in each local area. If the CQC identifies that a local authority has failed or is failing to discharge its duties under the Care Act to an acceptable standard, it has a duty to inform my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who has powers to intervene.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
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 estimate of additional administrative time and resource requirements for NHS organisations associated with the implementation and operation of the Federated Data Platform not specified in the FDP procurement contract.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) safely connects information from different systems across the National Health Service into a single, secure environment. This allows staff to co-ordinate care better to improve outcomes for patients.
The NHS FDP is delivering for the NHS, helping people get the care they need quicker and more efficiently. Since March 2024, more than 100,000 additional patients have been supported to undergo procedures in theatres partly by increasing theatre utilisation. Nearly 94,000 people have been supported on their cancer journey, with 7% seeing a reduction in the time it took to diagnose their cancer. There has been a 14% decrease in delays discharging patients staying in hospital for more than seven days, freeing up beds for those who need it most. NHS England publishes quarterly information on benefits realised from the FDP, which is available at the following link:
To date, 24 integrated care boards clusters and 168 NHS trusts have signed up to the NHS FDP, including the Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.
The NHS FDP programme provides centrally funded implementation support to NHS organisations, including technical, training, and business change resources, delivered through national, regional, and local teams. This approach is designed to minimise additional administrative burden while supporting effective and sustainable adoption.
NHS organisations retain responsibility for local delivery and adoption, consistent with standard practice for digital and transformation programmes. Local input is required across operational, technical, and change functions to support implementation and embedding into routine practice.
The NHS FDP delivery model combines centrally provided support with local resource mobilisation. Implementation is supported through a layered model: national teams provide centrally funded training and guidance; regional teams coordinate and assure delivery; and local NHS FDP delivery teams provide hands-on deployment and onboarding support. Together, these layers are intended to reduce the burden on individual NHS organisations while supporting local adoption.
Local resource requirements vary depending on the product deployed and organisational context. Typical deployment models include operational roles, technical roles and change, training, and support roles through the implementation period, typically consisting of two Whole Time Equivalents through the six-week implementation in total. These inputs would be expected to peak during implementation and then reduce once the platform is embedded into business-as-usual operations.
These inputs are generally time-limited, with effort peaking during onboarding, technical deployment, validation, and training, before reducing as solutions are embedded into business-as-usual operations.
Following implementation, organisations are expected to maintain proportionate ongoing administrative and service management support, consistent with other digital systems. This typically represents a fractional and ongoing commitment, rather than a full-time resource, and varies according to scale and usage.
No formal system-wide estimate has been made of additional administrative time and resource requirements beyond those specified to trusts when signing to join the NHS FDP, as these are locally determined and dependent on implementation choices, product mix, and organisational context.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England has undertaken an assessment of the potential impact of voluntary redundancy programmes across Devon NHS trusts on regional healthcare resilience and patient safety.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service landscape needs to continually evolve to ensure it can provide high quality patient care.
Any decision to offer a voluntary exit scheme is a matter for local employers and will be based on local service and staffing needs.
Decisions about recruitment are a matter for individual NHS employers, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.