Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 88 of the UK Government Resilience Action Plan, how many meetings Ministers in their Department have attended related to the Home Defence Programme.

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has regular discussions with officials, external experts, and ministerial colleagues on a range of issues, including national security, defence, and resilience.

The Home Defence Programme was established in August 2024 to build the United Kingdom’s resilience to any potential escalation to conflict. It is an evolving and enduring programme of work which provides defence, security, and resilience planning, focused on aligning military and civil effort in the event of a period of crisis and international hostilities affecting the UK, informed by and reflecting the recommendations from Government strategies, including the Strategic Defence Review, National Security Strategy, and Resilience Action Plan.

The Department, with NHS England and health partners, is actively supporting this work. This includes working with partners to ensure the health sector has flexible, adaptable, and scalable capabilities that can respond to a range of threats such as equipment, for example stockpiles and countermeasures, medicines, and medical equipment, skilled people, such as clinicians and public health staff, and infrastructure, including technology, diagnostics, testing.