Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) her Department or (b) NHS England has issued instructions to Integrated Care Boards to freeze any uncommitted expenditure.

Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England asked integrated care systems in November 2023 to produce revised plans for the remainder of the financial year in order to address their financial challenges in 2023/24. The actions required were communicated in a letter, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/addressing-the-significant-financial-challenges-created-by-industrial-action-in-2023-24/

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the announcement at page 34 of the Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, published on 6 March 2024, on upgrading more than 100 MRI scanners with AI, what the average time taken for patients to receive relevant test results is; and if she will make an estimate of the average time for such results to be received when the new scanners are in use.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 2.20 of Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, if she will publish the modelling used to estimate the number of patients that will be impacted by the proposed upgrading of 100 MRI scanners.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of GP practices used the GP online appointment booking feature to make appointments available (a) online and (b) through the NHS App in 2023.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

General practices (GPs) that have enabled the functionality of booking appointments digitally can offer this through a number of different Online Consultation Systems (OCS), including the NHS App. The Department does not hold data showing which system is used by each GP.

Of the 78% of GPs that have an operating OCS, 44.1% enabled their patients to book or cancel appointments within the last 12 months. In 2023, an estimated 2,160,594 GP appointments were booked through the NHS App.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many GP appointments were (a) available and (b) booked by patients (i) online and (ii) through the NHS App in 2023.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

General practices (GPs) that have enabled the functionality of booking appointments digitally can offer this through a number of different Online Consultation Systems (OCS), including the NHS App. The Department does not hold data showing which system is used by each GP.

Of the 78% of GPs that have an operating OCS, 44.1% enabled their patients to book or cancel appointments within the last 12 months. In 2023, an estimated 2,160,594 GP appointments were booked through the NHS App.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraphs 7.16 and 7.17 of the Ministerial Code, on how many occasions have Ministers in her Department informed the Law Officers that they are the defendants in a libel action in (a) their personal capacity, (b) their official position and (c) both since 19 December 2019.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is unable to confirm this information as any advice provided by the Law Officers and the content thereof cannot be disclosed without their authority.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of new-born children were give a digital NHS personal child health record in the last 12 months.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Every baby is allocated a National Health Service number as soon as their birth is notified by the attending midwife. This is linked to the NHS number of the birth mother. Once registered at a general practice (GP) surgery, a baby will also have a GP record. This is the first digital health record which most babies will receive, and is linked to their existing NHS number.

The aim of the Digital Personal Child Health Record programme is not to create a new, standalone record, but to use existing infrastructure to facilitate better coordination between existing records. This will support families in accessing the information they need when they need it, and for professionals to offer more informed, joined-up care.

We have improved access to relevant content and information about maternity, early years, and Start for Life, via the NHS App, and made it easier for families to register a new baby digitally at a GP practice. Over 2000 practices have already adopted the solution, which consists of an online registration service and a new paper form. GPs will be contractually required to adopt and offer both formats, from October 2024.

We have also prepared the launch of a pilot programme which will allow anyone with parental responsibility to apply digitally for access to their child’s record, for any child up to 13 years old. This has now launched in 70 GPs in England, and will make it much easier for parents to manage a child's digital health record. For example, once rolled out across England, this will enable the parent or carer to view their baby’s digital GP record, book appointments, and request prescriptions, all via the NHS App.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she expects every child to have a personal child health record.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Every baby is allocated a National Health Service number as soon as their birth is notified by the attending midwife. This is linked to the NHS number of the birth mother. Once registered at a general practice (GP) surgery, a baby will also have a GP record. This is the first digital health record which most babies will receive, and is linked to their existing NHS number.

The aim of the Digital Personal Child Health Record programme is not to create a new, standalone record, but to use existing infrastructure to facilitate better coordination between existing records. This will support families in accessing the information they need when they need it, and for professionals to offer more informed, joined-up care.

We have improved access to relevant content and information about maternity, early years, and Start for Life, via the NHS App, and made it easier for families to register a new baby digitally at a GP practice. Over 2000 practices have already adopted the solution, which consists of an online registration service and a new paper form. GPs will be contractually required to adopt and offer both formats, from October 2024.

We have also prepared the launch of a pilot programme which will allow anyone with parental responsibility to apply digitally for access to their child’s record, for any child up to 13 years old. This has now launched in 70 GPs in England, and will make it much easier for parents to manage a child's digital health record. For example, once rolled out across England, this will enable the parent or carer to view their baby’s digital GP record, book appointments, and request prescriptions, all via the NHS App.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 12 October 2021 to Question 51702 on NHS: Expenditure, how much NHS England, clinical commissioning groups and integrated care boards spent in aggregate on (a) mental health services, (b) acute health services, (c) social care services, (d) primary medical services, (e) specialised services, (f) NHS continuing healthcare and (g) all other recorded spending categories in each financial year since 2015-16; and how much those organisations plan to spend in aggregate in each of those areas in the (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2024-25 financial years.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the annual budget for the NHS England Frontline Digitisation programme was (a) when that programme was established and (b) at the start of financial year (i) 2022-23, (ii) 2023-24 and (iii) 2024-25.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding NHS England plans to allocate to Integrated Care Boards for local GP retention schemes for 2024-25; and through what mechanism that funding will be allocated following the closure of the General Practice Fellowship and the Supporting Mentors schemes.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

In 2022, we saw the highest ever number of doctors accepting a place on general practice (GP) training, a record of 4,032 trainees, up from 2,671 in 2014.

From April 2024, integrated care boards (ICBs) will take on greater autonomy to make decisions that serve the best interests of local people and communities. This means that, while the General Practice Fellowship and Supporting Mentors schemes will no longer operate in their current national form, NHS England will work with ICBs to put in place support that reflects their local approaches and needs. It will be for ICBs to decide how funding operates at a local level, and the amount of funding they are able to devote to the schemes. NHS England will, however, continue to support people currently on the General Practice Fellowship throughout 2024/25, and ministers will shortly be beginning a series of roundtables with GPs on the future for GP practice, that will also consider ideas for retention and training.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to include all patient records held by GPs in the NHS federated data platform.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Federated Data Platform is a vital upgrade for the National Health Service, allowing it to be much more effective in how it handles its data. It will bring together information about staff, waiting times, equipment and medicines to improve patient outcomes.

Based on agreements between general practices' data controllers and integrated care boards, the Federated Data Platform will have the capability to include elements of local primary care data. This would be limited to the information required to support the provision of care and would only be utilised by local organisations within the local tenants of the Federated Data Platform, and not be shared beyond a local level.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the number of patients (a) waiting for mental healthcare and (b) on NHS waiting lists for physical conditions who are also waiting for mental healthcare.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

There is currently no waiting times standard covering all mental health service areas. For services where a waiting times standard does exist, the latest position over the period from November 2023 to January 2024 was published by NHS England on 14 March 2024.

Information on routine and urgent referrals to children and young people’s eating disorder services and referrals to the early Intervention in Psychosis pathway is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-services-monthly-statistics/performance-january-2024

Information on referrals to NHS Talking Therapies is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-talking-therapies-monthly-statistics-including-employment-advisors/performance-january-2024

For referrals to adult community mental health services waiting for a second contact, referrals to children and young people’s community mental health services waiting for a first contact and Accident & Emergency attendances for mental health or self-harm, information is being collected to prepare for the proposed new waiting time standards being developed as part of the Clinically-led review of National Health Service access standards but these are NOT yet associated with a target. The latest position over the period from November 2023 to January 2024 is available at the following link:

Information on the number of patients on NHS waiting lists for physical conditions who are also waiting for mental healthcare is not held centrally.

Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are expanding and transforming NHS mental health care so that more people can get the support that they need more quickly. Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, the NHS forecasts that spending on mental health services has increased by £4.6 billion in cash terms, compared to the target of £3.4 billion in cash terms set out at the time of the NHS Long Term Plan. All integrated boards are also on track to meet the Mental Health Investment Standard in 2023/24.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what is the (a) final outturn spend for 2022-23, (b) forecast outturn for 2023-24 and (c) planned budget for 2024-25 for the NHS England Frontline Digitisation programme budget.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The final outturn spend for 2022/23 is £472.8 million. Outturn for 2023/24 is to be confirmed once the final accounts have been approved. Final confirmation of the budgets for 2024/25 is pending, and will be confirmed imminently.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS England spent on agency staff in each year since 2010.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The first full financial year for which NHS England was in existence, as the NHS Commissioning Board, was 2013/14. NHS England only holds information on agency spend in combination with other commissioning bodies, for instance integrated care boards, formerly known as clinical commissioning groups. The following table shows the total spent on agency staff in NHS England and the commissioning bodies, each year since 2013/14 to 2022/23:

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many trusts have agreed to join the federated data platform as of 7 March 2024.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Federated Data Platform is a vital upgrade for the National Health Service, allowing it to be much more effective in how it handles its data, to improve outcomes for patients. It will allow information about staff, waiting times, equipment and medicines to be brought together, to allow better planning of how the NHS uses its resources.

41 trusts have agreed to join the Federated Data Platform, by means of transitioning from their participation in one of the pilot programmes. In parallel, the programme is actively engaging with 29 new trusts, regarding joining the Federated Data Platform in 2024. We are working with regions and local organisations to plan their implementation timeline.

Found: Response to the Bill Labour Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, said that Labour would vote for

Found: Response to the Bill Labour Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, said that Labour would vote for