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 the HL1033, 6 July 2026, how many times the audit trail for access to data on the National Data Integration Tenant has been reviewed or audited since its implementation, and what the outcomes of those audits were.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The current access management process for the National Data Integration Tenant (NDIT) was implemented in November 2025. All access and user activity is strictly monitored and audited by a dedicated NHS England team as part of a regular assurance process, as detailed in NHS England's response to the National Data Guardian, available at the following link:
Audit logs are reviewed to confirm the actions undertaken by users. In addition, comprehensive access audits have been carried out in December 2025, for all NDIT users; and in March and May 2026, for a subset of users.
These additional audits have confirmed that users have the appropriate permissions in line with approved access, that access corresponds to the projects established on the NDIT, that the level of access remains appropriate and necessary, and that Security Check clearance has been correctly evidenced and remains in date.
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 information his Department holds on (a) the use of artificial intelligence tools within the Federated Data Platform and (b) any capabilities for (i) summarisation, (b) research, (c) inference, and (d) timeline generation from patient data.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP) includes artificial intelligence (AI) capability through the Artificial Intelligence Platform, and this supports AI-enabled workflows within the NHS FDP, subject to governance, access controls, information governance, and clinical safety requirements. These tools may be used to improve workflows, reduce administration time, support data pipeline development, and summarise information.
Further information is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/digitaltechnology/nhs-federated-data-platform/security-privacy/nhs-fdp-information-governance-framework/local-fdp-products/artificial-intelligence-assisted-discharge-summary-ai-assisted-dsum-fdp-product-privacy-notice/
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's guidance entitled Preventing unlawful access to patient records, published on the 8th July applies to a) data held in General Practice, b) data accessed from pharmacies participating in Pharmacy First, c) data held in the Federated Data Platform, d) NHS England national staff using the Federated Data Platform, and e) Palantir staff using the Federated Data Platform.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Stopping unlawful access to records guidance for health and care professionals applies to any patient data, and to anyone working in the National Health Service, or under contract to the NHS, with the potential to access patient records. This would include data held in general practice, data accessed from pharmacies participating in Pharmacy First, data held in the Federated Data Platform, NHS England national staff using the Federated Data Platform, and Palantir staff using the Federated Data Platform. The guidance can be found 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, for a list of models available of use on the NHS AI Platform, and the name of any intermediary entities between the NHS user and the model providers.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There currently is no National Health Service artificial intelligence platform. The Department therefore does not hold a list of models available for use on such a platform, nor a list of intermediary entities between NHS users and model providers for that purpose.
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: