Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2025 to Question 76564 on Surgery: Waiting Lists, what discussions he had with NHS England on (a) the introduction of NHS standard contract technical guidance for 2025-26 and (b) provisions for minimum waiting times before publication.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following consultation, NHS England publishes the NHS Standard Contract annually for use by commissioners in contracting for National Health Service-funded healthcare services. The Department is involved in the consultation process on the Standard Contract. Technical guidance is published for information alongside the Standard Contract consultation. Its purpose is to advise commissioners and providers on how to apply the contract.
NHS England develops the standard contract technical guidance in collaboration with the system to ensure it provides the support required for both commissioners and providers to apply the contract requirements and to deliver on Operational Planning Guidance.
The Department has ongoing discussions with NHS England on waiting times. As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029. Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are required to hit those targets and providers are working hard to deliver this commitment.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2025 to Question 76564 on Surgery: Waiting Lists, whether NHS England holds information on which ICBs use minimum waiting times for elective care.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Following consultation, NHS England publishes the NHS Standard Contract annually for use by commissioners in contracting for National Health Service-funded healthcare services. The Department is involved in the consultation process on the Standard Contract. Technical guidance is published for information alongside the Standard Contract consultation. Its purpose is to advise commissioners and providers on how to apply the contract.
NHS England develops the standard contract technical guidance in collaboration with the system to ensure it provides the support required for both commissioners and providers to apply the contract requirements and to deliver on Operational Planning Guidance.
The Department has ongoing discussions with NHS England on waiting times. As set out in the Plan for Change, we are committed to returning to the NHS constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029. Planning Guidance for 2025/26 sets a target that 65% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks by March 2026, with every trust expected to deliver a minimum 5% improvement on current performance over that period.
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are required to hit those targets and providers are working hard to deliver this commitment.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what meetings or engagements Ministers or senior officials from his department have had with any of the following patient organisations to discuss newborn screening: (a) Genetic Alliance UK (b) UK LSD Collaborative (c) UK Newborn Screening Collaborative (d) ArchAngel MLD Trust (e) MPS Society (f) MLD Support Association UK (g) SMA UK (h) Immunodeficiency UK (i) Alex, The Leukodystrophy Charity (j) Metabolic Support UK, since July 2024.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government remains committed to improving the lives of people living with rare diseases through the UK Rare Diseases Framework, which includes faster diagnosis as one of its four priorities.
In all aspects of population and targeted screening, ministers are advised by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). When assessing the case for newborn screening for rare diseases, as with all other diseases and conditions, the UK NSC uses internationally recognised criteria and a rigorous evidence review and consultation process. It is only where the UK NSC is confident that the offer to screen provides more good than harm that a screening programme is recommended. When the UK NSC makes a screening recommendation, ministers are then asked to consider and make a decision on whether to accept the recommendation.
This year, the UK NSC secretariat carried out a review of the committee’s stakeholder engagement strategy and activities. The review included an online survey and three focused stakeholder discussion groups that were attended by a total of 17 external stakeholders, including seven representatives of patient organisations representing rare diseases affecting newborns. The UK NSC stakeholder strategy is being updated to incorporate their valuable feedback and is expected to be published in early 2026.
Although the Department screening team supporting the UK NSC has limited capacity to meet with individual stakeholders, they actively involve and engage with stakeholders and partners in other ways. For example:
The Department screening team meets regularly with the Department’s rare diseases team to discuss overlapping areas of work. The rare diseases team have working relationships with the wider rare diseases community and junior officials have met with Genetic Alliance UK.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure the National Screening Committee and the newborn screening programme appropriately consider rare diseases.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
When assessing the case for newborn screening for rare diseases, as with all other diseases and conditions, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) uses internationally recognised criteria, and a rigorous evidence review and consultation process. It is only where the UK NSC is confident that the offer to screen provides more good than harm that a screening programme is recommended.
The UK NSC is an independent scientific advisory committee which advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries on all aspects of population and targeted screening and supports implementation.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
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 on the NHS workforce of financial pressures faced by higher education institutions providing healthcare education.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made.
We work closely with the Department for Education on a wide range of matters, including healthcare education and training funding. Matters relating to the income of universities are the responsibility of the Department for Education.
Latest figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) for 2025 show that acceptances to undergraduate nursing and midwifery courses at English providers have increased by 1% when compared to the same point last year, and by 5% compared to pre-pandemic numbers (2019). These are not final numbers. We are awaiting end of cycle data to be published by UCAS later this year to confirm final numbers.
The total number of publicly funded students that can start medical courses each year is limited and is set by the Government. Each medical school is issued with an expected maximum intake for the year. The Office for Students runs an annual data survey that monitors provider recruitment against these targets. In the five most recent years for which final data is available, universities have met this limit, with medicine remaining a competitive course.
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what engagement his Department has had with (a) universities and (b) higher education providers in developing the new NHS workforce plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan which will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
We have engaged with a range of partners on shaping the upcoming workforce plan, including universities and higher education providers.
We welcome the fact that so many valued stakeholders are keen to engage in the plan’s development. On 26 September 2025, we launched a formal call for evidence, which provides stakeholders the opportunity to contribute directly to the plan’s development. This closed on 7 November 2025.
The Department of Health and Social Care engages closely with the Department for Education on a wide range of matters, including the upcoming workforce plan.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
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 with the Department for Education to support the delivery of the NHS workforce plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan which will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
We have engaged with a range of partners on shaping the upcoming workforce plan, including universities and higher education providers.
We welcome the fact that so many valued stakeholders are keen to engage in the plan’s development. On 26 September 2025, we launched a formal call for evidence, which provides stakeholders the opportunity to contribute directly to the plan’s development. This closed on 7 November 2025.
The Department of Health and Social Care engages closely with the Department for Education on a wide range of matters, including the upcoming workforce plan.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
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 ensure that Learning Disability Nursing is adequately supported within the new NHS workforce plan.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan which will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it. We are working through how the plan will articulate the changes for different professional groups, including by engaging with a wide range of partners and valued stakeholders.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the planned training intakes are for (a) medical school places, (b) GP trainee places, (c) nurses, (d) nursing associates, (e) midwives, (f) pharmacists and (g) dentists in (i) 2025, (ii) 2026, (iii) 2028 and (iv) 2031.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, the Office for Students (OfS) sets the maximum fundable limit for medical school and dental school places. For the 2025/26 academic year, the OfS has published its intake target at 8,126 for medical school places and 809 for dental school places, as set out on their website, at the following link:
This limit is confirmed on an annual basis. General practice training places are set out annually by NHS England.
Undergraduate training places for nurses, nurse associates, midwives, and pharmacists are not centrally commissioned by the Government, instead they are determined by local employers and education providers who decide the number of learners they admit based on learner demand and provider capacity funding.
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan which will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan fact sheet, published on 30 June 2023, whether it is his policy to provide £2.4 billion funding for additional education and training places for healthcare professionals over the five years to 2028-29; and how much funding he plans to provide for this purpose in each financial year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has been clear that the 2023 Long Term Workforce Plan was undeliverable and based on outdated models of care. We have committed to publishing the 10 Year Workforce Plan in spring 2026, which will represent a departure from previous plans and which will instead set out action to create a sustainable workforce that is fit for the future.
The 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it. We are working through how the plan will articulate the changes for different professional groups, and the consequent funding arrangements for education and training in the years covered by the 2025 Spending Review. We are committed to working with partners to ensure the plan meets its aims and will engage independent experts to make sure the plan is ambitious, forward looking, and evidence based.