Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support mental health provision in schools.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

This government is committed to improving mental health support for all children and young people. This is critical to high and rising standards in schools and breaking down barriers to opportunity, helping pupils to achieve and thrive in education.

That is why the department has committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. We will also be putting in place new Young Futures hubs, including access to mental health support workers, and will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults.

Mental Health Support Teams (MHSTs) are continuing to roll out in schools and colleges across the country. As of April 2024, MHSTs covered 44% of pupils in schools and learners in further education in England. MHSTs are expected to cover at least 50% of pupils by the end of March 2025.

The department has also provided a resource hub for mental health leads, signposting practical resources and tools to embed effective whole-school approaches. To further help schools identify and embed the most effective targeted support options for their setting, the department also launched a targeted mental wellbeing toolkit. This practical guide and tool covers a range of evidence-based interventions.

On top of this, schools are also able to arrange their own mental health interventions that are best suited to their pupils. The Autumn Budget 2024 confirmed an additional £2.3 billion for the core schools budget for the 2025/26 financial year compared to 2024/25. This means that core schools funding will reach over £63.9 billion in 2025/26.

Schools are also able to spend pupil premium funding on providing mental health support. Schools must use pupil premium in line with the department’s menu of approaches, which can be found on page 13 of the department’s publication ‘Using pupil premium: guidance for school leaders’. The guidance can be found here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65cf69384239310011b7b91f/Using_Pupil_Premium_-_Guidance_for_School_Leaders.pdf.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the police grant for 2025-26 on crime in Epping Forest constituency.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

Total funding to police forces will be up to £17.5 billion in 2025-26, an increase of up to £1.1 billion compared to the 2024-25 police funding settlement.

This includes funding to support the costs of the 24-25 pay award, the increase in the employer national insurance contributions, funding for officer maintenance and an additional £200 million to kickstart the first phase of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.

Essex Police’s funding will be up to £433.3 million in 2025-26, an increase of £27.1 million compared to 2024-25. This represents a 6.7% cash increase and 4.2% real terms increase when compared to the 2024-25 funding settlement.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to respond to the Review of the RSHE statutory guidance published in 2024.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has been clear that children’s wellbeing must be at the heart of this guidance for schools. As such, the department is looking carefully at responses to the public consultation conducted last year, considering the relevant evidence and discussing with stakeholders before setting out next steps to make sure the guidance draws from the best available evidence.

The results of the consultation and the department’s response will be published in due course.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the funding allocated to local authorities to improve air quality.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The department works closely with local authorities to develop approaches to reducing air pollution.

Under the NO2 Programme, the Government’s DfT-Defra Joint Air Quality Unit has provided significant funding to support local authorities to improve air quality in areas of NO2 exceedances, for example recently agreeing Greater Manchester’s £86m Clean Air Plan. We continue to work closely with local areas as they implement their plans.

Local authorities have funding allocated to them as part of the local government settlements. Any future, additional funding for local authorities will be subject to the Government’s spending review process.

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 support the (a) development and (b) use of eye scans for diagnosing dementia.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services, including the detection and diagnosis of dementia, and will support the National Health Service to increase capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services.

The Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme is investing in biomarker innovations ranging from an artificial intelligence tool designed to improve the accuracy of blood tests for dementia, to using retinal scans to detect early-onset dementia decades before symptoms. Some of these innovations could support improved diagnosis in the future, if validated for clinical use.

The Department delivers dementia research via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds a range of research into diagnosing dementia, including investing nearly £11 million of funding to develop new digital approaches for the early detection and diagnosis of dementia.

As part of the NIHR funded DaRe2THINK sub-study, researchers are using tests, including eye scans, to look at the effects of blood thinning medications on preserving brain function and assessing the real-time disease burden of dementia.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to refine the NHS Health Check to better identify dementia brain health risks.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The NHS Health Check raises awareness of the actions people can take to reduce their risk of dementia and, for people aged 65 to 74 years old, the signs and symptoms of dementia, with signposting to memory services where appropriate. The Department will continue to work with NHS England to ensure the advice and guidance on dementia in the NHS Health Check is up to date.

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 help improve capacity in dementia diagnostics to facilitate access to new dementia treatments.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.

Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, builds on the investments already made with an ambitious vision for the future of diagnostic testing. This will include more straight-to-test pathways, increasing and expanding community diagnostic centres (CDCs), and better use of technology. With 170 CDCs due to be up and running by the end of March 2025, CDCs can take on more of the growing diagnostic demand within elective care. We will also deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding several existing CDCs and building up to five new ones.

To prepare for the new generation of dementia treatments in development, NHS England is working closely with regulators to ensure that arrangements are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and treatments recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence as soon as possible.

Alongside Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, Gates Ventures and the People’s Postcode Lottery, the National Institute for Health Research is funding the Blood Biomarker Challenge which seeks to produce the clinical and economic data that could make the case for the use of a blood test in the NHS to support diagnosis of dementia.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how his Department plans to (a) increase the number of scanners available for dementia diagnosis and (b) reduce diagnosis times for patients.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.

Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, builds on the investments already made with an ambitious vision for the future of diagnostic testing. This will include more straight-to-test pathways, increasing and expanding community diagnostic centres (CDCs), and better use of technology.

With 170 CDCs due to be up and running by the end of March 2025, CDCs can take on more of the growing diagnostic demand within elective care. We will also deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new ones.

Alongside Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, Gates Ventures and the People’s Postcode Lottery, the National Institute for Health Research is funding the Blood Biomarker Challenge which seeks to produce the clinical and economic data that could make the case for the use of a blood test in the NHS to support diagnosis of dementia.

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 potential merits of creating a cross-government strategy to tackle (a) health and (b) lifestyle factors that increase the risk of developing dementia.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

As part of the Government’s Health Mission, we will shift from sickness to prevention, to tackle ill health, prevent premature deaths, and build a fairer United Kingdom where everyone lives longer, healthier lives.

We have committed to developing a 10-year plan to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future. We will carefully be considering policies, including those that impact people with dementia care needs, with input from the public, patients, and health staff as we develop the plan. The plan is being co-produced with the health and care sector and the public.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to strengthen dementia diagnostic pathways.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

To support the implementation of the Dementia Care Pathway, NHS England has developed a dashboard. The aim is to support commissioners and providers of memory services with appropriate data and enable targeted support where needed. NHS England has also supported the development of resources for integrated care boards (ICBs), including an integrated care system self-assessment framework, to support the design of integrated dementia pathways. NHS England's RightCare team has refreshed the RightCare Dementia Scenario. The scenario works through the dementia well pathway journey from diagnosing well through to dying well, detailing optimal and sub optimal approaches, with associated costings for each.

NHS England is hosting a series of webinars to share best practice in dementia for staff in memory assessment services, primary care, urgent and emergency care, and ICBs. To aid improvement in dementia diagnosis rate performance, NHS England has also initiated a regional delivery group to address variation and enhance diagnosis rates.

The Department delivers research into dementia via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds a range of research into diagnosing dementia, including investing in two dementia and neurodegeneration Policy Research Units to further boost evidence for policymaking. One of the units is undertaking a project to investigate the United Kingdom’s healthcare system’s readiness for using blood and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers at scale outside of specialist services.

The NIHR-funded CONGA trial is also seeking to improve the diagnostic process for dementia, providing more accurate evidence for clinicians and helping patients to get appropriate treatment quickly.

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 effectiveness of the NICE process on the wider societal cost of dementia when appraising new dementia treatments.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) develops its guidance independently and based on an assessment of the available evidence. In developing its recommendations, NICE considers all health-related costs and benefits for patients and caregivers, in line with its established methods and processes. NICE does not consider wider societal costs and benefits.

Any changes to NICE methods to broaden its cost-benefit analysis and incorporate wider societal costs would be both methodologically and ethically challenging. Such changes could have unintended consequences, potentially leading to fewer treatments being recommended for populations that are older, economically inactive, or have greater care needs.

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 integrate the work of (a) NICE, (b) NHS England, (c) health industry representatives and (d) the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on adopting new dementia treatments.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government wants patients to benefit from rapid access to safe and effective new medicines in a way that represents value to the taxpayer. The Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) reviews medicinal products for quality, safety and efficacy and if satisfied, will provide an appropriate marketing authorisation or licence for the United Kingdom, detailing the safe use and target population. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. Wherever possible the NICE aims to publish recommendations on new medicines around the time of licensing.

With the consent of the marketing authorisation holders, the NICE and the MHRA have piloted enhanced information sharing arrangements for the new disease modifying treatments for dementia. The pilots have enabled the organisations to fully align their processes and announce marketing authorisation decisions and draft recommendations on the same day for the first two licensed disease modifying treatments. The MHRA, the NICE, NHS England, and counterparts in the other UK nations are working closely together to ensure that the NHS is prepared for the rollout of any licensed and NICE-recommended new dementia treatments.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of tracing of movement of animals, animal products and vehicles to the UK, in the context of the Foot and Mouth outbreak in Germany.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Whilst we have never had an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) in the UK, it remains a key priority in terms of exotic notifiable disease preparedness. The overall risk of an incursion is currently assessed to be medium, and we continue to prepare for a possible outbreak. To safeguard the UK’s pork and pig industries, Defra, Devolved Governments, together with the pig industry and veterinary bodies have been working together to raise awareness of the risks of the introduction of ASF to the UK. Defra announced further controls in September 2024, restricting the movement of pork and pork products into Great Britain.

The risk of incursion of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) to Great Britain was increased to medium following the confirmation of disease in Germany on the 10 January 2025. The Government has taken decisive and rapid action to protect the UK by suspending the commercial import of susceptible animals from Germany and restricting personal imports of animal products from across the EU. The UK has robust contingency plans in place to manage the risk of this disease as set out in the Foot and Mouth Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain(opens in a new tab) supported by the Contingency plan for exotic notifiable diseases of animals in England(opens in a new tab).

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the Foot and Mouth outbreak in Germany.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Following confirmation of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Germany on the 10 January 2025, the Government took rapid action to protect the UK including suspending from Germany, the commercial import of susceptible animals, their untreated meat, dairy products and animal by-products, and hay and straw, and restricting personal imports of animal products from across the EU.

The UK has been free of FMD since 2007 and has plans in place to manage the risk of this disease as set out in the Foot and Mouth Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain supported by the Contingency plan for exotic notifiable diseases of animals in England. Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) keep preparedness under continual review but are refocusing effort following the confirmation of FMD in Germany. APHA leads government action on animal disease control and is in the planning stages of a national exercise to test and validate our response to an outbreak of FMD, scheduled for 2025/26.

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