Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people are in receipt of state support for their social care costs in (a) Dorset and (b) West Dorset.

Data on the number of people receiving state support for their social care costs are collected at a local authority level by NHS Digital. At the end of 2020/21, there were 3,900 people in receipt of local authority supported long-term care in Dorset. Though an end of year figure for short-term care is not available, there were 1,855 people in receipt of local authority supported short-term care in Dorset during 2020/21.

The information requested is not available for West Dorset, as data is collected at local authority level.