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 additional recurrent funding will be provided alongside implementation of the proposed NHS dental contract reforms.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
We are committed to reforming the dental contract by the end of this Parliament, with a focus on matching resources to need, improving access, promoting prevention, and rewarding dentists fairly, while enabling the whole dental team to work to the top of their capability.
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. 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.
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 NHS dental funding levels on the recruitment and retention of dentists providing NHS care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
Since July 2024, the Government has been rebuilding a broken National Health Service dentistry system. We have delivered 1.8 million more dental treatments and reduced the underspend from £392 million in 2023/24 to just £36 million in 2024/25, maximising the treatments provided for taxpayers’ money.
We have brought into force a package of reforms this year to address some of the most pressing issues that dentists and dental teams have been experiencing, including rewarding them more fairly for treating patients with urgent and complex needs.
Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions to rebuild NHS dentistry. We are increasing the supply of dentists through a sustained expansion of 50 new dental school places and an increase in exams to allow 2,000 more internationally qualified dentists to practise in the United Kingdom.
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, pursuant to written question 11338 on Folic Acid, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the policy on prostate cancer rates and fetal death rates.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
Folic acid fortification was recommended by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA) in 2000 and by its successor the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) in 2006, after an extensive review of the evidence on folate and health. The SACN has further considered the evidence in its 2009 report to the Chief Medical Officer on folic acid and colorectal cancer risk and its 2017 update on folic acid.
In SACN’s 2017 update on folic acid, the evidence on high folic acid intakes on cancer risk specifically in relation to prostate, breast, colorectal, and overall cancer risk was reviewed. The report concluded that the findings from the different types of studies were inconsistent but overall, the evidence was inconclusive in relation to prostate and colorectal cancer risk and did not suggest an adverse association with breast cancer or overall cancer risk.
The SACN’s risk assessments concluded that ‘conclusive evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) has shown that folic acid supplementation during the early stages of pregnancy can reduce the risk of the fetus developing neural tube defects (NTDs)’.
Foetal death rates was not a health outcome specifically considered by the SACN.
The level of folic acid chosen for fortification was 250 micrograms per 100 grams flour, with a view to minimising the risk of the population exceeding the tolerable upper intake level, which was considered in the Governments impact assessment.
The Government is planning an evaluation on the impact of the policy.
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, who has custody over the encryption keys used to protect data held within the NHS Federated Data Platform and the Privacy Enhancing Technologies.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
NHS England owns the keys. The Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET) software generates, controls, and stores the key values securely, so they are not accessible to human users.
The use of encryption keys is strictly controlled by NHS England for the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP) tenant and by the data owners of local tenants.
Both the NHS FDP and PET contracts are based on Government Legal Department terms and conditions, aligning to best practice in respect of cyber security and security management, which is reflected in the redacted versions of the agreements available on Contracts Finder.
The contract terms reflect and support the management of encryption keys as set out above, where specific requirements relate to encryption keys this would be included in the specifications of the contracts. Both agreements have terms which ensure enforcement of United Kingdom legislation and regulatory requirements in relation to data processing. For reference, the NHS FDP contract can be found at the following link:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/0f8a65b5-23a2-4294-abb1-a7fd8efb3ad0
In addition, the NHS England PET contract can be found at the following:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/2fa49293-bc01-4e0f-a017-f01cb0195212
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, how many people have a) contracted and b) died as a result of sepsis caused by dental issues in each of the last 10 years in England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
Data on sepsis contracted as a result of dental issues is not held centrally, as data on sepsis is not broken down by underlying cause.
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, how many hospitals use Cancer360 for managing patient pathways.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
Five National Health Service hospital trusts are currently using the Cancer 360 product to manage patients with cancer or suspected cancer, as of the end of March 2026. This does not include wider cancer products that are being piloted across all Greater Manchester providers. NHS England regularly publishes updated uptake and benefit statistics for the NHS Federated Data Platform at the following link:
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, how many Trusts reported to be failing to meet cancer standards have been (a) mandated and (b) encouraged to use Cancer360 by NHS England.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
Trusts are not mandated to use the product or individually encouraged based on their performance on cancer 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, when his Department plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Newton Abbot sent on 14 May 2026 under case ref MW15899.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
We received the Hon. Member’s correspondence of 14 May 2026 and have replied as of 30 June 2026.
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 steps he plans to take to ensure that patients can access audit logs of who has accessed their health records across (a) GP Connect, (b) the Summary Care Record and (c) other existing systems before the implementation of the proposed Single Patient Record.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
Patients can make a request to the relevant organisation, such as their general practice or hospital, to see who has accessed their information in existing systems.
Audit logs will be a key safeguard for the Single Patient Record, helping to show who has accessed patient information and whether that access was appropriate. The detailed audit log arrangements are being developed as part of the technical design work and have not yet been finalised.
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 proposed Single Patient Record will have audit trails that are directly accessible to patients as a matter of course.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
Patients can make a request to the relevant organisation, such as their general practice or hospital, to see who has accessed their information in existing systems.
Audit logs will be a key safeguard for the Single Patient Record, helping to show who has accessed patient information and whether that access was appropriate. The detailed audit log arrangements are being developed as part of the technical design work and have not yet been finalised.