Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support the move toward patient self-referral for community audiology services as a default pathway in (a) Harrow East constituency and (b) England.

The current community audiology service in Harrow East requires a referral from a healthcare professional to access the service. The North West London Integrated Care Board is examining how this service could be developed, in the light of recent guidance around increasing self-referral to services such as audiology, in a manner that meets the needs of the population and which fits sustainably within the funding available for this service.