Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that a hearing check is added to the dementia component of the NHS health check.

The Department currently has no plans to add a hearing check to the dementia component of the NHS Health Check. In 2019, an Expert Advisory Panel advised against including a hearing assessment as part of an NHS Health Check. This advice was informed by the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) which, following a review of evidence, recommended against screening for hearing loss. The UKNSC’s recommendation remained unchanged following an update to this review in 2021.