Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to improve training on racial bias.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not currently provide specific training centrally for racial bias. All staff are required to complete the Civil Service Expectations mandatory learning which covers broader aspects of equality, diversity, and inclusion.
Aspects of bias also feature in recruitment training which is carried out prior to sifting and interviewing. All panel members for Civil Service recruitment must complete the Success Profiles: sifting and interviewing course and Civil Service Expectations course.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 increase the proportion of written parliamentary questions which receive answers within the usual time period.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department takes seriously its parliamentary obligations. I am grateful to my colleagues for their patience as we respond to a very high number of written parliamentary questions (PQs).
The Department of Health and Social Care is the busiest Department in Whitehall in terms of the volume of PQs that we receive, routinely receiving in excess of 1,400 PQs each month. In the most recent period for which the Table Office has provided data on PQ performance, from 24 March to 30 June 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care received nearly double the number of PQs as the next highest volume departments, and received 15% of all PQs tabled across Whitehall.
We are taking action to improve PQ performance. This includes enhancing the data available to policy teams on outstanding casework and ensuring that the joint leadership of the Department is championing the importance of PQs.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with integrated care boards on reducing waiting times for breast cancer treatment in Slough constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and the local integrated care board (ICB) has taken action to reduce waiting times for breast cancer treatment. This includes expansion of one-stop breast clinics and improved access to breast imaging. Action has also been taken to use enhanced digital triage to prioritise highest-risk cases. Moreover, targeted action has been taken to reduce the proportion of patients diagnosed at stage 3 or stage 4, with early signs of improvement in the timeliness of staging and biopsy results.
Additionally, there are plans for extended-hours breast imaging sessions for Slough Community Diagnostic Centre after the scheduled opening in March 2026. Moreover, action has been taken across the local ICB to safeguard capacity for triple assessment and surgery. Participation in the national AI-enabled breast cancer early detection programme will help to support improved accuracy and faster reporting.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of waiting times at urgent care centres in Slough constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. The Department monitors urgent and emergency care performance nationally through NHS England, and the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 sets commitments and improvement measures. This includes £250 million of capital funding to continue the expansion of co-located urgent treatment centres and same day emergency care to improve patient streaming and reduce overcrowding.
NHS England works with local systems to implement these improvements and ensure patients receive timely and appropriate care.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with integrated care boards on the steps they are taking to reduce waiting times for (a) ADHD and (b) autism assessments.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has recognised that, nationally, demand for assessments for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has grown significantly in recent years and that people are experiencing severe delays for accessing such assessments. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan will make the National Health Service fit for the future and recognises the need for early intervention and support.
It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including providing access to autism and ADHD assessments, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.
The Medium-Term Planning Framework, published 24 October, was explicit that ICBs and providers are expected to optimise existing resources to reduce long waits for autism and ADHD assessments and improve the quality of assessments by implementing existing and new guidance, as published.
In April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance to help ICBs and the NHS to deliver improved outcomes for people referred to an autism assessment service. NHS England has continued to support services to identify challenges and how they might overcome these. NHS England also established an ADHD taskforce to better understand the challenges affecting those with ADHD, including in accessing timely and equitable access to services and support. We are pleased that the final report was published on 6 November, and we are carefully considering its recommendations.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 ensure that the number of children who have been seen by an NHS dentist in Slough is in line with the national average.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the Slough constituency, this is the Frimley ICB.
We have asked ICBs to commission extra urgent dental appointments to make sure that patients with urgent dental needs can get the treatment they require. ICBs have been making extra appointments available from 1 April 2025.
ICBs are recruiting posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
We recently held a full public consultation on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of NHS dentistry, which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation closed on 19 August. The Government is considering the outcomes of the consultation and will publish a response shortly.
We are committed to reforming the dental contract, 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 Government is committed to achieving fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 support South Central Ambulance Service to meet target waiting times.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We acknowledge that urgent and emergency care performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years, and we are taking serious steps to address this.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year. We are also tackling unacceptable ambulance handover delays by introducing a maximum 45-minute standard, supporting ambulances to be released more quickly and get back on the road to treat patients.
This commitment is supported by significant investment in upgrading hundreds of ambulances and expanding the capacity of urgent and emergency care services, enhancing both the speed and quality of care for patients in greatest need.
The latest National Health Service performance figures, from October 2025, for South Central Ambulance Service which covers Slough, show that Category 2 incidents were responded to in 31 minutes 54 seconds on average, over six minutes faster than in October 2024.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of ambulance response times in Slough constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We acknowledge that urgent and emergency care performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years, and we are taking serious steps to address this.
Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year. We are also tackling unacceptable ambulance handover delays by introducing a maximum 45-minute standard, supporting ambulances to be released more quickly and get back on the road to treat patients.
This commitment is supported by significant investment in upgrading hundreds of ambulances and expanding the capacity of urgent and emergency care services, enhancing both the speed and quality of care for patients in greatest need.
The latest National Health Service performance figures, from October 2025, for South Central Ambulance Service which covers Slough, show that Category 2 incidents were responded to in 31 minutes 54 seconds on average, over six minutes faster than in October 2024.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 ensure an adequate number of places are available for foundation year doctors moving onto speciality training posts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in our 10-Year Health Plan published on 3 July, we will work across the Government to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors who have worked in the National Health Service for a significant period for specialty training. The plan also sets out that over the next three years we will create 1,000 new specialty training posts with a focus on specialties where there is the greatest need. We will set out next steps in due course.
NHS England has also taken steps to tackle competition for speciality training places this year by changing General Medical Council registration requirements and limiting the number of applications that can be submitted by individuals.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the availability of treatment for those with Friedreich’s Ataxia.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the UK Rare Diseases Framework, the Government is working to improve access to specialist care, treatments, and drugs across all rare conditions. In February, we published the fourth England action plan reporting on progress.
Following extensive consultation, NHS England has revised the national service specification for specialised neurology, which now includes an annex providing greater clarity for neurology sub-specialties. This includes the categories of both movement disorders and neurogenetics into which Friedreich’s Ataxia falls. Every specialised National Health Service neurology centre could and should see patients with Friedreich’s Ataxia.
Although Skyclarys (omaveloxolone) is now licensed for those aged 16 years old and over, following an update from the company, Biogen, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has had to terminate its appraisal of this medicine as the company has withdrawn its evidence submission. NICE will review its decision if the company decides to make a new submission. Further information is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/TA1061
To avoid the possibility of creating a way to circumvent the appraisal process, NHS England is unable to fund medicines where companies have not engaged with NICE.