Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to allocate funding to IT connectivity for primary care optical practices to ensure safe and efficient referrals to hospital eye departments.

The Department has no plans to allocate funding to enable IT connectivity between primary care optical practices and hospital eye departments. NHS England is continuing to work with the eye care sector and other key stakeholders on this area of work and will be considering priorities for IT investment later this year.