Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS providers are making use of the NHS barcode.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England figures show that 81 trusts in England use National Health Service number barcodes on patient identification wrist bands. This total includes a mix of trusts compliant with the former ISB 1077 and the current DCB1077 standard, a standard which supports the accurate, timely, and safer identification of NHS patients in England, by using barcodes for positive patient identification. 37 trusts, of the 81 trusts, are compliant with the current DCB1077 standard.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish a timeline for when the NHS app will be made British Sign Language accessible.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has set out a commitment to make the NHS App British Sign Language (BSL) accessible in the 10-Year Health Plan, which covers the period to 2035.
Currently, there is no timeline for when the NHS App will be made BSL accessible. The NHS App roadmap is published and regularly updated, and is available at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/services/nhs-app/roadmap
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 increase the number of (a) available beds and (b) diagnostic equipment such as scanners per patient in hospitals across England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the 10-Year Health Plan, we are working to expand urgent care capacity through neighbourhood health services and virtual wards, enabling patients to receive care closer to home where clinically appropriate and easing pressure on hospitals. In addition, investment in digital tools will improve patient flow and further reduce reliance on inpatient beds. We are also working to develop stronger partnerships between the National Health Service and social care to ensure that patients receive the services they need to support timely and effective hospital discharge and to prevent avoidable hospital admissions.
The Department is also committed to increasing the number of surgical hubs, which will increase ringfenced elective capacity, providing greater protection from urgent and emergency care, improving outcomes for patients, and reducing pressures on hospitals. There are currently 123 surgical hubs operational across England.
At a local level, decisions regarding the opening of additional beds to manage pressures are made by individual NHS trusts, in accordance with their operational requirements. The Department does not direct these decisions centrally.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the 18-week constitutional standard by the end of this Parliament, including transforming and expand diagnostic services.
We are expanding diagnostic services, including investing in new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scanners in hospitals and community diagnostic centres (CDCs), as well as replacing some of the oldest CT and MRI scanners in the NHS estate. We have confirmed 13 new state-of-the-art DEXA scanners to support better bone care, delivering on the Government’s commitment in the Elective Reform Plan. These will allow for an extra 29,000 bone scans per year, benefitting tens of thousands of patients.
This is backed as part of the 2025 Spending Review, which confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment over five years across new diagnostic, elective, and urgent care capacity. This includes £600 million in capital funding for diagnostics in 2025/26 to support delivery of the NHS performance standards. Further details and allocations will be set out in due course.
We are also supporting the NHS to maximise existing diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services, including extending the hours CDCs are open. In August 2025, we announced that 100 CDCs were delivering much needed checks, tests, and scans 12 hours a day, seven days a week. These will reduce overall waiting times for treatment. Alongside this, NHS England is working to ensure MRI acceleration software is being rolled out across MRI scanners, including upgrading old scanners which are unable to utilise this new software and technology.
Asked by: Simon Opher (Labour - Stroud)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will ensure that (a) universal lay terminology is used in the NHS app and (b) there is signposting to Lab Tests Online UK to enable patients to interpret their diagnostic results correctly.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS App aims to use clear, universal lay terminology that is easy for the general public to understand. The content follows the National Health Service content style guide, which mandates writing in plain English to a reading age of nine to 11 years old. As part of the delivery of the 10-Year Health Plan, the NHS App will provide an improved and personalised experience for users, empowering them to access key elements of their health conditions like test results, and providing patients with advice and guidance 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that will help them to understand their health and make informed choices about what to do next.
We regularly test our content with patients to ensure it is clear and effective. This includes working with users who have access needs, low digital literacy, or are from seldom-heard groups.
This work builds on the current test results feature in the NHS App that is successfully used by millions of people each month to access the results of tests they have conducted with their general practitioner.
There is signposting to Lab Tests Online-UK (LTO-UK) to help patients interpret their diagnostic results, though this may depend on how the patient's general practice (GP) has configured its systems. We currently provide links to LTO-UK for approximately 70 of the most common test types. While the NHS App itself primarily displays results along with any accompanying doctor’s comments or actions, GP systems can have embedded links to LTO-UK alongside the test results, providing a direct route for patients to access reliable information at the point of care.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 29 October 2025 to Question 79538 on NHS: Defence Medical Services, when was the process of digitally extracting redacted patient notes from general practice surgeries introduced.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The British Army introduced the use of the Intelligent General Practice Supporting (iGPR) software for the secure and efficient processing of sensitive medical reports in January 2025 following an initial pilot. The Royal Navy adopted Medi2data to digitally access candidate medical reports from 9 April 2025, noting the wider benefits of using this service.
The Armed Forces Recruiting Service (AFRS) will provide a streamlined, single-entry point for prospective recruits. The service will launch in 2027, replacing the individual schemes run by the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force. The Defence Medical Services is engaged in this work.
Asked by: Iqbal Mohamed (Independent - Dewsbury and Batley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of potential alternative suppliers to Palantir for the Federated Data Platform contract; and whether that assessment included consideration of levels of alignment with NHS principles of (a) universality, (b) transparency and (c) patient trust.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England ran a rigorous independent and transparent procurement exercise for the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP), in line with public contract regulations.
The selection was made by multiple assessors against clear criteria following an open tender process where any supplier could respond with their solution. Potential suppliers were required to demonstrate their financial, commercial, security, and technical capability to meet contractual requirements.
The plans for an NHS FDP followed a consultation with trusts and integrated care boards to gather insight in order to understand what their common issues and challenges were in relation to data. The programme is supported by a Data Governance Group, made up of information governance professionals. The programme is also supported by the Health and Social Care Data Public Panel, a group consisting of patient, public, and professional representatives with an interest in patient data, including the Office of the National Data Guardian.
Privacy by design is a core principle of the NHS FDP, with robust security measures to safeguard patient information. Access to data must have an explicit aim to benefit patients and/or the NHS in England.
Palantir provides the software platform, Foundry, that underpins the NHS FDP. NHS England remains the data controller at all times for the national instance. Each NHS organisation is the data controller for their local NHS FDP instance and decides how their local data is used.
Palantir operates strictly under the instruction of the NHS. They do not own or control NHS data.
The NHS FDP is built with robust security and privacy controls, including Privacy Enhancing Technologies procured separately from Palantir. Data access is tightly governed. Only authorised users can access data for approved purposes, and all access is logged and auditable.
Asked by: Iqbal Mohamed (Independent - Dewsbury and Batley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what safeguards are in place to ensure that patient data managed by Palantir under the Federated Data Platform contract cannot be (a) accessed, (b) used and (c) transferred for purposes unrelated to NHS (i) care and (ii) administration.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England ran a rigorous independent and transparent procurement exercise for the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP), in line with public contract regulations.
The selection was made by multiple assessors against clear criteria following an open tender process where any supplier could respond with their solution. Potential suppliers were required to demonstrate their financial, commercial, security, and technical capability to meet contractual requirements.
The plans for an NHS FDP followed a consultation with trusts and integrated care boards to gather insight in order to understand what their common issues and challenges were in relation to data. The programme is supported by a Data Governance Group, made up of information governance professionals. The programme is also supported by the Health and Social Care Data Public Panel, a group consisting of patient, public, and professional representatives with an interest in patient data, including the Office of the National Data Guardian.
Privacy by design is a core principle of the NHS FDP, with robust security measures to safeguard patient information. Access to data must have an explicit aim to benefit patients and/or the NHS in England.
Palantir provides the software platform, Foundry, that underpins the NHS FDP. NHS England remains the data controller at all times for the national instance. Each NHS organisation is the data controller for their local NHS FDP instance and decides how their local data is used.
Palantir operates strictly under the instruction of the NHS. They do not own or control NHS data.
The NHS FDP is built with robust security and privacy controls, including Privacy Enhancing Technologies procured separately from Palantir. Data access is tightly governed. Only authorised users can access data for approved purposes, and all access is logged and auditable.
Asked by: Iqbal Mohamed (Independent - Dewsbury and Batley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consultation NHS England carried out with (a) patients, (b) healthcare staff and (c) data governance experts prior to awarding the Federated Data Platform contract to Palantir.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England ran a rigorous independent and transparent procurement exercise for the NHS Federated Data Platform (NHS FDP), in line with public contract regulations.
The selection was made by multiple assessors against clear criteria following an open tender process where any supplier could respond with their solution. Potential suppliers were required to demonstrate their financial, commercial, security, and technical capability to meet contractual requirements.
The plans for an NHS FDP followed a consultation with trusts and integrated care boards to gather insight in order to understand what their common issues and challenges were in relation to data. The programme is supported by a Data Governance Group, made up of information governance professionals. The programme is also supported by the Health and Social Care Data Public Panel, a group consisting of patient, public, and professional representatives with an interest in patient data, including the Office of the National Data Guardian.
Privacy by design is a core principle of the NHS FDP, with robust security measures to safeguard patient information. Access to data must have an explicit aim to benefit patients and/or the NHS in England.
Palantir provides the software platform, Foundry, that underpins the NHS FDP. NHS England remains the data controller at all times for the national instance. Each NHS organisation is the data controller for their local NHS FDP instance and decides how their local data is used.
Palantir operates strictly under the instruction of the NHS. They do not own or control NHS data.
The NHS FDP is built with robust security and privacy controls, including Privacy Enhancing Technologies procured separately from Palantir. Data access is tightly governed. Only authorised users can access data for approved purposes, and all access is logged and auditable.
Asked by: Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat - Chippenham)
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 ensure that (a) the NHS Food Scanner app and (b) other NHS-endorsed public health tools align with Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition advice on (i) non-sugar sweeteners and (ii) ultra-processed foods.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has a series of digital tools to support adults and families to eat better and move more, including the food scanner app and the National Health Service weight loss plan app, email programmes, and websites. These tools are evidence-based and regularly reviewed to ensure alignment with current Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition guidance, including recommendations on non-sugar sweeteners and ultra-processed foods. Updates are ongoing to reflect the latest Government advice.
We are always looking to improve the app experience, including extending and personalising messaging, and we welcome feedback from parents as well as organisations to aid us in this process.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many languages the NHS app will be available in by 2035.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan recently committed to offering services in the NHS App in multiple languages to reach people who have difficulty with English where it is not their first language. Scoping has started to understand how to deliver this in a safe and cost-effective way, so that translations are reliable, consistent across patient journeys, accessible by those that they are intended for, and are making good use of public funds. The NHS App is currently available in English and Welsh.