Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to retain the 66.7% national dementia diagnosis rate target for the 2025-26 financial year.

The Government and NHS England remain committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7%

The new approach to planning guidance will improve the operating model, giving local leaders the freedom and autonomy they need to provide the best services to their local community, including for those with dementia. Planning guidance is not a catalogue of everything the National Health Service does, and the absence of a target does not mean it has been deprioritised.

Lord Darzi’s independent review showed that a timely diagnosis is vital to ensure that a person with dementia can access the advice, information, care and support that can help them to live well and remain independent for as long as possible. The review also highlighted that there were too many targets set for the NHS which made it hard for local systems to prioritise their actions or be held properly accountable.

We are therefore reducing the number of national priorities from 32 last year to 18 this year. This will allow local NHS leaders to make the best choices to meet the needs of their local population.