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 (a) modernise NHS IT infrastructure and (b) ensure value for money in upgrading IT systems.

Through the Frontline Digitisation programme, we will work to level up National Health Service trusts to a baseline level of digital capability. Our investment in digitising the frontline will ensure value for money and that health and care staff have access to health-related information when and where it is needed, supporting them to deliver care efficiently, effectively, and safely, thereby reducing variation and improving outcomes.

Currently 91%, or 187 out of 206, of Secondary Care Trusts have an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) in place, with work underway to provide tailored support to the remaining 19 trusts that do not yet have an EPR. Our ambition is for all trusts to meet our stated core digitisation standards, including having EPRs in place by March 2026.

The programme is forecasting to achieve 96% EPR coverage by its end in March 2026, with the remaining 4% of trusts having advanced in their plans for an EPR.