Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's planned timetable is for increasing the annual provision of specialty training places for resident doctors.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan published in July 2025, over the next three years we will create 1,000 new specialty training posts with a focus on specialties where there is greatest need. We will set out next steps in due course
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
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 merits of conducting efficiency savings to fund more (a) clinical staff and (b) equipment in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England’s 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance made it clear that the National Health Service must live within the budget it is allocated, reduce waste and increase productivity to deliver growth against demand. The Autumn Statement 2024 reaffirmed a 2% NHS productivity growth target for 2025/26, and the recent Spending Review set out the commitment to achieve 2% productivity growth across the Spending Review period, supported by up to £10 billion of technology and digital investment.
As part of the 2025/26 planning process, all NHS systems set efficiency and savings targets necessary to achieve a balanced financial position, and planned delivery of the other national priorities set out in planning guidance including recovering elective activity. To help organisations identify savings and plan for 2025/26, NHS England shared core productivity and efficiency metrics with benchmarked opportunities. For a given budget, savings and productivity opportunities can enable the same level of clinical staff to do more activity, or can involve savings to non-clinical areas or reduction in input costs, for example, procurement and agency savings, to enable reinvestment in additional clinical staff or non-capitalised equipment.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GPs have (a) been hired and (b) left practice since July 2024.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Between June 2024 and June 2025, the most recent period for which data is available, 2,611 full time equivalent (FTE), or 4,174 headcount, fully qualified general practitioners (GPs) joined general practice, while 1,760 FTE, or 2,756 headcount, fully qualified GPs left general practice.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase the recruitment of GPs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are starting to see consistent growth in the general practitioner (GP) workforce. In July 2025, there were 658 more fully qualified full-time equivalent GPs working in practices than in July 2024.
The Government committed to recruiting over 1,000 recently qualified GPs in primary care networks (PCNs) through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) over 2024/25. This is part of our initiative to secure the future pipeline of GPs, with over 1,000 doctors otherwise likely to graduate into unemployment in 2024/25. Data on the number of recently qualified general practitioners for which PCNs are claiming reimbursement via the ARRS show that, since 1 October 2024, over 2,000 GPs were recruited through the scheme.
Newly qualified GPs employed under the ARRS will continue to receive support under the scheme in the coming year as part of the 25/26 contract. Several changes have been confirmed to increase the flexibility of ARRS. These include: GPs and practice nurses included in the main ARRS funding pot; an uplift of the maximum reimbursable rate for GPs in the scheme; and no caps on the number of GPs that can be employed through the scheme.
We are boosting practice finances by investing an additional £1,092 million in general practice to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP contract in 2025/26 is faster than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department has allocated to GP practices to hire more GPs.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are starting to see consistent growth in the general practitioner (GP) workforce. In July 2025, there were 658 more fully qualified full-time equivalent GPs working in practices than in July 2024.
The Government committed to recruiting over 1,000 recently qualified GPs in primary care networks (PCNs) through an £82 million boost to the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) over 2024/25. This is part of our initiative to secure the future pipeline of GPs, with over 1,000 doctors otherwise likely to graduate into unemployment in 2024/25. Data on the number of recently qualified general practitioners for which PCNs are claiming reimbursement via the ARRS show that, since 1 October 2024, over 2,000 GPs were recruited through the scheme.
Newly qualified GPs employed under the ARRS will continue to receive support under the scheme in the coming year as part of the 25/26 contract. Several changes have been confirmed to increase the flexibility of ARRS. These include: GPs and practice nurses included in the main ARRS funding pot; an uplift of the maximum reimbursable rate for GPs in the scheme; and no caps on the number of GPs that can be employed through the scheme.
We are boosting practice finances by investing an additional £1,092 million in general practice to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade. The 8.9% boost to the GP contract in 2025/26 is faster than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his speech to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists World Congress, published on 23 June 2025, what his planned timetable is for the NHS Chief Executive and Chief Nursing Office to meet (i) Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and (ii) Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust; and if he will publish the outcomes of those meetings.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
An initial meeting between the Chief Executive of the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the NHS Chief Executive, and the Chief Nursing Officer for England to discuss maternity and neonatal services took place on 25 June 2025. Further in-depth meetings will take place in due course, and following these meetings the trust board should report on their progress to their public board.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
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 the risk of children and young people developing cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, so that more patients survive this horrible set of diseases, including children and young people. The Government has now exceeded its pledge to deliver two million extra operations, scans, and appointments, having delivered 3.6 million additional appointments as a first step to delivering on the commitment that 92% of patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment, in line with the NHS constitutional standard, by March 2029.
On 4 February 2025, the Department relaunched the Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce to identify tangible ways to improve outcomes and experiences for children and young people with cancer. The taskforce is exploring opportunities for improvement across genomic testing and treatment, research and innovation, patient experience, and early detection and diagnosis.
The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on improving outcomes for cancer patients, including for children and young people with cancer, and will highlight how the Department will support the NHS to reduce the risk of children and young people developing cancer in all parts of England.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
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 increase accessibility to healthier foods.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the Health Mission, the Government is committed to prevention and to tackling obesity, creating a fairer, healthier food environment. We are taking action to restrict the advertisements of less healthy food and drink products to children on television and online, we are limiting school children’s access to fast food, and are taking steps to ensure the Soft Drinks Industry Levy remains effective and fit-for-purpose. We are also committed to banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under 16 year olds.
Through the Healthy Start scheme we encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four years old from very low-income households, supporting the Government’s aim to create the healthiest generation of children in our history.
We are also working closely with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs to develop their cross-Government Food Strategy which will set the food system up for long-term success and will provide wide ranging improvements. The Food Strategy will work to provide healthier, more easily accessible food to help people live longer, healthier lives.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
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 youth obesity rates.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We face a childhood obesity crisis, and the Government will take action to tackle the root causes of obesity head on, easing the strain on our National Health Service and creating the healthiest generation of children ever.
We are delivering an ambitious programme of work to create a healthier food environment. We are taking action to restrict advertisements of less healthy food and drink to children on television and online, we are limiting school children’s access to fast food, we are taking steps to ensure the Soft Drinks Industry Levy remains effective and fit-for-purpose, and we are committed to banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under 16 year olds.
The Government has announced the extension of free school meals to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026, and that work is in progress with experts from across the sector to revise the School Food Standards, so that every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.
We are also working collaboratively across the Government on the Food Strategy and the Child Poverty Strategy to provide healthier, more easily accessible food to tackle obesity and give every child the best start in life.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has his Department has made of the potential impact of childhood obesity on risk of cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A specific assessment of a direct link between childhood obesity and the risk of cancer has not been made. However, there is evidence that children and adolescents living with obesity are more likely to remain living with obesity as adults. There is also evidence that adults living with obesity have a higher risk of developing several types of cancer, with further information available at the following link:
Data suggests that 6% of cancer cases in the United Kingdom are attributable to obesity and overweight, including:
- 34% of uterine cancer cases, or 3,000 out of 9,000;
- 24% of kidney cancer cases, or 2,900 out of 12,400;
- 17% of upper gastrointestinal cancer cases, or 5,600 out of 32,400;
- 11% of colorectal cancer cases, or 4,800 out of 41,800; and
- 8% of breast cancer cases, or 4,600 out of 55,100.
Further information on this data is available at the following link:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-018-0029-6
The National Child Measurement Programme collects data on children aged four to five years old, who would be in reception, and 10 to 11 years old, who would be in year 6. In the 2023/24 school year, data on childhood obesity in England indicates that 22.1% of children in reception and 35.8% in year 6 were overweight or living with obesity. Further information on childhood obesity in England is available at the following link:
The Department has commissioned research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research to quantify the health and social impacts of obesity during childhood and is awaiting results, with further information available at the following link: