Department of Health and Social Care

There are no current plans to hold discussions with the Northern Irish Department of Health or the Health and Social Care Board on abiraterone access in Northern Ireland. Decisions on the availability of medicines in Northern Ireland are a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive.

There are no current plans to hold discussions with the Northern Irish Department of Health or the Health and Social Care Board on abiraterone access in Northern Ireland. Decisions on the availability of medicines in Northern Ireland are a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive.

The Department has interpreted the question as referring to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), as there is no public body called the ‘Care Equality Commission’.

The CQC operates a positive action development programme aimed at addressing barriers to career progression, aligning with the ambitions set out in the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, to support colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled colleagues.

Participation in the programme does not guarantee promotion, as all appointments are made through fair and open competition in accordance with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles.

The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.

As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC is providing expert policy advice on the rising costs of clinical negligence and how we can improve patients’ experience of claims. The review is ongoing, following initial advice to ministers and the recent National Audit Office report.

Over recent years, the NHS and the Department have taken significant steps forward to address the rising costs of clinical negligence and to improve patient safety, including by implementing significant programmes under the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, published 2019. The strategy is now achieving its aim of saving an extra 1,000 lives per year and £100 million in care costs per year.

In addition, the Government is committed to restoring urgent and emergency care waiting times to the standards set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of this Parliament, as laid out in out 10-Year Health Plan. The NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework sets out a clear trajectory to improve urgent and emergency care performance year-on-year, reducing long waits and improving patient experience.

The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.

As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC is providing expert policy advice on the rising costs of clinical negligence and how we can improve patients’ experience of claims. The review is ongoing, following initial advice to ministers and the recent National Audit Office report.

Over recent years, the NHS and the Department have taken significant steps forward to address the rising costs of clinical negligence and to improve patient safety, including by implementing significant programmes under the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, published 2019. The strategy is now achieving its aim of saving an extra 1,000 lives per year and £100 million in care costs per year.

In addition, the Government is committed to restoring urgent and emergency care waiting times to the standards set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of this Parliament, as laid out in out 10-Year Health Plan. The NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework sets out a clear trajectory to improve urgent and emergency care performance year-on-year, reducing long waits and improving patient experience.

The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last ten years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.

Although forecasts remain uncertain, it is likely that the costs of clinical negligence will continue to grow substantially. The Government Actuary’s Department forecasts that annual payments for compensation and legal costs will increase from £3 billion in 2024/25 to £4.1 billion by 2029/30.

As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC is providing expert policy advice on the rising costs of clinical negligence and how we can improve patients’ experience of claims. The review is ongoing, following initial advice to ministers and the recent National Audit Office report.

We welcome the report by the National Audit Office. The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area. No decisions on policy have been taken at this point, and the Government will provide an update on the work done and next steps in due course.

The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last ten years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.

Although forecasts remain uncertain, it is likely that the costs of clinical negligence will continue to grow substantially. The Government Actuary’s Department forecasts that annual payments for compensation and legal costs will increase from £3 billion in 2024/25 to £4.1 billion by 2029/30.

As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC is providing expert policy advice on the rising costs of clinical negligence and how we can improve patients’ experience of claims. The review is ongoing, following initial advice to ministers and the recent National Audit Office report.

We welcome the report by the National Audit Office. The results of David Lock’s work will inform future policy making in this area. No decisions on policy have been taken at this point, and the Government will provide an update on the work done and next steps in due course.

While the Government is committed to ensuring sustainable training pathways for health and care professions, higher education institutions are independent providers and are responsible for making their own decisions about course delivery and viability based on learner demand and provider capacity.

The closure of the University of Essex Southend campus is a consolidation of oral health, adult, and mental health nursing courses to their main campus at Colchester. This is not expected to negatively impact overall training numbers or local recruitment to these professions.

While the Government is committed to ensuring sustainable training pathways for health and care professions, higher education institutions are independent providers and are responsible for making their own decisions about course delivery and viability based on learner demand and provider capacity.

The closure of the University of Essex Southend campus is a consolidation of oral health, adult, and mental health nursing courses to their main campus at Colchester. This is not expected to negatively impact overall training numbers or local recruitment to these professions.

While the Government is committed to ensuring sustainable training pathways for health and care professions, higher education institutions are independent providers and are responsible for making their own decisions about course delivery and viability based on learner demand and provider capacity.

The closure of the University of Essex Southend campus is a consolidation of oral health, adult, and mental health nursing courses to their main campus at Colchester. This is not expected to negatively impact overall training numbers or local recruitment to these professions.

The Department does not hold a central count of the number of specialist Parkinson’s nurses employed across the National Health Service, either in England as a whole or in Coventry and Warwickshire specifically.

Specialist Parkinson’s nurses play a vital role in supporting people with Parkinson’s disease through personalised care, medicines management, and advice on self‑management. However, these posts are not recorded as a discrete workforce category in national workforce datasets. Workforce planning, including decisions about the number and type of specialist nurses needed locally, is the responsibility of individual employers and their integrated care boards (ICBs), which are best placed to assess the needs of their populations.

The Department does not hold data on the number of neurologists with specialist training in Parkinson’s disease, either nationally in England or within Coventry and Warwickshire. National workforce datasets do not record condition‑specific sub‑specialisms within neurology, and responsibility for determining local specialist workforce configurations rests with individual employers and ICBs.

As of October 2025, there are 51 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of neurology within the Coventry and Warwickshire ICB area. This is a decrease of one, or 2.2%, compared to last year and an increase of 23, or 79.3%, compared to five years ago. This includes 21 FTE consultants. This is an increase of two, or 9.9%, compared to last year and six, or 41.5%, compared to five years ago.

The Department does not hold a central count of the number of specialist Parkinson’s nurses employed across the National Health Service, either in England as a whole or in Coventry and Warwickshire specifically.

Specialist Parkinson’s nurses play a vital role in supporting people with Parkinson’s disease through personalised care, medicines management, and advice on self‑management. However, these posts are not recorded as a discrete workforce category in national workforce datasets. Workforce planning, including decisions about the number and type of specialist nurses needed locally, is the responsibility of individual employers and their integrated care boards (ICBs), which are best placed to assess the needs of their populations.

The Department does not hold data on the number of neurologists with specialist training in Parkinson’s disease, either nationally in England or within Coventry and Warwickshire. National workforce datasets do not record condition‑specific sub‑specialisms within neurology, and responsibility for determining local specialist workforce configurations rests with individual employers and ICBs.

As of October 2025, there are 51 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of neurology within the Coventry and Warwickshire ICB area. This is a decrease of one, or 2.2%, compared to last year and an increase of 23, or 79.3%, compared to five years ago. This includes 21 FTE consultants. This is an increase of two, or 9.9%, compared to last year and six, or 41.5%, compared to five years ago.

The 500 new ambulances announced in the Department’s press release of 31 December 2025 form part of East of England Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust’s wider ambulance replacement and expansion programme.

Allocations have not been finalised at individual county level, meaning it is not possible at this stage to confirm how many of these vehicles will be deployed in Essex.

Data is not held centrally on the number of accessible and Changing Places toilets in hospitals. The Changing Places Toilets website holds a register of all accredited ‘Changing Places’ toilets, including ones on National Health Service sites, which can be searched. Further information is avaiable at the following link:

https://www.changing-places.org/find

Hospitals need to satisfy the requirements of Building Regulations, Part M to provide suitable sanitary accommodation. The provision of hoists in hospitals is a decision taken locally by NHS organisations consistent with their patient acuity and clinical case-mix.

Data is not held centrally on the number of accessible and Changing Places toilets in hospitals. The Changing Places Toilets website holds a register of all accredited ‘Changing Places’ toilets, including ones on National Health Service sites, which can be searched. Further information is avaiable at the following link:

https://www.changing-places.org/find

Hospitals need to satisfy the requirements of Building Regulations, Part M to provide suitable sanitary accommodation. The provision of hoists in hospitals is a decision taken locally by NHS organisations consistent with their patient acuity and clinical case-mix.

The Government is determined to get the National Health Service back on its feet so patients can be treated with dignity. We recognise that the provision of clinical care in corridors or other non-designated clinical areas is unacceptable and we are committed to eradicating it from our NHS.

Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out steps we are taking to ensure that patients will receive better, faster, and more appropriate emergency care this winter, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. This includes a commitment to publish data on the prevalence of corridor care, which will be published shortly.

We are also introducing new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care, setting clear expectations for timely reviews and specialist input, further supporting our efforts to eliminate corridor care and improve patient experience.

In December, NHS England published updated guidance on providing care in corridors to support trusts with making decisions on corridor care transparently, with clear governance and oversight to reduce impacts on patients and staff and to ensure the safety and dignity of patients.

The Government is determined to get the National Health Service back on its feet so patients can be treated with dignity. We recognise that the provision of clinical care in corridors or other non-designated clinical areas is unacceptable and we are committed to eradicating it from our NHS.

Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out steps we are taking to ensure that patients will receive better, faster, and more appropriate emergency care this winter, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. This includes a commitment to publish data on the prevalence of corridor care, which will be published shortly.

We are also introducing new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care, setting clear expectations for timely reviews and specialist input, further supporting our efforts to eliminate corridor care and improve patient experience.

In December, NHS England published updated guidance on providing care in corridors to support trusts with making decisions on corridor care transparently, with clear governance and oversight to reduce impacts on patients and staff and to ensure the safety and dignity of patients.

The Government is determined to get the National Health Service back on its feet so patients can be treated with dignity. We recognise that the provision of clinical care in corridors or other non-designated clinical areas is unacceptable and we are committed to eradicating it from our NHS.

Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan, published in June 2025, set out steps we are taking to ensure that patients will receive better, faster, and more appropriate emergency care this winter, backed by a total of nearly £450 million of funding. This includes a commitment to publish data on the prevalence of corridor care, which will be published shortly.

We are also introducing new clinical operational standards for the first 72 hours of care, setting clear expectations for timely reviews and specialist input, further supporting our efforts to eliminate corridor care and improve patient experience.

In December, NHS England published updated guidance on providing care in corridors to support trusts with making decisions on corridor care transparently, with clear governance and oversight to reduce impacts on patients and staff and to ensure the safety and dignity of patients.

The Government recognises that urgent and emergency care performance has fallen short in recent years. We are committed to restoring accident and emergency waiting times to the NHS Constitutional standard.

Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26 sets out clear actions to deliver improvements and make services better every day. The plan commits to reducing the number of patients waiting over 12 hours for admission or discharge to less than 10% of the time. This is supported by almost £450 million of capital investment for Same Day Emergency Care, Mental Health Crisis Assessment Centres, and new ambulances, avoiding unnecessary admissions to hospital and supporting the faster diagnosis, treatment, and discharge for patients.

The table attached sets out the proportions of patients waiting over 12 hours for admission or discharged for England and the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, of which Blackpool Victoria Hospital is the only type 1 accident and emergency provider.

The Government acknowledges that urgent and emergency care performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years. The Government is committed to restoring urgent and emergency care waiting times to the standards set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of this Parliament, as laid out in our 10-Year Health Plan.

NHS England publishes monthly data on the proportion of patients seen, admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours in accident and emergency departments. The following table shows the latest figures as of November 2025 for the four-hour performance rates for Basildon Hospital, other hospitals within the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, and the national rate:

Note: site level performance data is only published as type 1 and 2 performance.

Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2025-26/

Reducing elective waiting times across all specialties is a key part of the Government’s Health Mission, and this includes waiting times for trauma and orthopaedics. We exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million appointments, tests, and operations in our first year of Government, delivering 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025. This marked a vital First Step to delivering on our commitment to return to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment by March 2029.

As of the end of November 2025, the number of trauma and orthopaedic pathways within 18 weeks stood at 59.2%, an improvement of 3.1% since the start of July 2024.

However, we know there is more to do, and have confirmed over £6 billion of additional capital investment to expand capacity across diagnostics, electives, and urgent care. This includes increasing the number of surgical hubs, which provide protected surgical capacity across elective specialities, including trauma and orthopaedics.

By separating elective services from urgent and emergency care, hubs improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital pressures. Almost three quarters of the 124 operational elective surgical hubs in England currently provide trauma and orthopaedics services.

As set out in the Plan for Change and the Elective Reform Plan, we are committed to returning by March 2029 to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to consultant-led treatment.

We have already made significant progress on this. As of November 2025, the waiting list has reduced by over 312,000 since the Government came into office, and performance against the referral to treatment standard has improved by 2.9%, reaching 61.8%.

We’ve made this progress through setting ambitious targets, investing in modernisation, reforming and simplifying pathways, increasing surgical and diagnostic capacity, and empowering patients with faster and more convenient access to care.

This has been supported by the delivery of 5.2 million additional appointments between July 2024 and June 2025 compared to the previous year, more than double the Government’s pledge of two million. This marked a vital First Step towards delivering the constitutional standard.

Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards (ICBs), based on their population’s clinical needs. We are working with NHS England to understand and improve the offer around National Health Service-funded fertility services, including how best to support further research and data collection.

Revised NICE fertility guidelines are due for publication in Spring, setting clear expectations for commissioners. These guidelines will establish a national standard for consistent provision of fertility services across England.

We expect ICBs to commission fertility services consistent with these new guidelines, ensuring equal access to treatment across England.

We recognise the importance of ensuring that emergency departments operate safely and effectively. Assessments of staffing levels, the physical estate, and patient flow are matters for local National Health Service trusts, in partnership with integrated care boards, who are best placed to manage services in line with local needs and circumstances.

Nationally, NHS England sets standards for emergency care and provides guidance to support trusts in maintaining safe staffing and patient flow.

We work closely with NHS England to monitor performance and provide additional support where needed, including investment in urgent and emergency care capacity and initiatives to improve patient flow.

We have committed to publishing regular workforce planning. This will start with the 10 Year Workforce Plan, which will include updated workforce modelling and its underlying assumptions when published in spring 2026. The updated workforce modelling will be supported by independent external scrutiny to assess and test it.

No assessment has been made. NHS England published their trauma-informed and harm aware in-patient care guidance in October 2025, and it is avaiable at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/trauma-informed-harm-aware-inpatient-care/

The guidance supports National Health Service staff working in mental health, learning disability, and autism inpatient settings to make services more trauma-informed and harm aware.

Also available to NHS staff is an e-learning module which focuses on trauma-informed care and supporting the workforce to be more trauma sensitive in the way care is delivered, with the aim of fostering a trauma sensitive culture. Further information on the e-learning module is avaiable at the following link:

https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/trauma-informed-care/

Good physical working environments are important for staff wellbeing and retention. Staff need to be given the time and space to rest and recover from their work, particularly when working on-call or overnight. This is recognised as a priority in the NHS People Promise which sets out the importance of employers prioritising spaces for staff to rest and recuperate, and ensuring access to hot food and drinks.

In May 2024, NHS England and NHS Charities Together launched a £10 million Workforce Wellbeing Programme to support National Health Service staff in England. It will provide tailored health and wellbeing support to NHS staff, including grants to improve facilities. A three-year programme of work named Great Food, Good Health, led by NHS England, aims to improve the experience and quality of nutritious food that patients, staff, and visitors receive in hospital. As part of this, the NHS made clear that NHS organisations must be able to demonstrate they have suitable 24/7 food service provision.

The Government has committed significant public capital funding to health infrastructure, with the overall annual capital budget increasing to £15.2 billion by the end of the Spending Review period for 2029/30. Over the five-year Spending Review period, this translates to £30 billion in day-to-day maintenance and repair of the National Health Service estate and over £6 billion of additional capital invested in diagnostic, elective, and urgent and emergency capacity in the NHS. In addition, we remain committed to delivering all schemes within the New Hospital Programme, which will continue through the Spending Review period, rising to a steady rate of £15 billion over five-year cycles.

The 2025 Budget announced that the NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild Programme will deliver new neighbourhood health centres through upgrading and repurposing existing buildings and building new facilities through a combination of public sector investment and a new model of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Delivering new neighbourhood health centres through a combination of public investment and PPP will also allow the Government, for the first time, to build further evidence and compare different delivery models.

The Department and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority are continuing to develop the new PPP model for neighbourhood health centres with further engagement this year. The new neighbourhood health centres PPP model will build on lessons from the past including the National Audit Office’s 2025 report on private finance and other models currently in use. Further information on the National Audit Office’s 2025 report on private finance is avaiable at the following link:

https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/lessons-learned-private-finance-for-infrastructure.pdf

To ensure fiscal transparency and sustainability, the Government will budget for these neighbourhood health centres as if they were on-balance sheet, to ensure that this expenditure is transparent, and fiscally sustainable.

The Government is taking a comprehensive approach to reducing avoidable ambulance demand across the country including in the East of England. Our Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Plan for 2025/26 aims to improve UEC performance with a focus on reducing ambulance handover delays by introducing a maximum 45-minute standard, freeing up ambulances to get back on the road.

The plan also commits to increasing the number of patients receiving urgent care in the community by expanding services such as urgent community response, neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams, and increasing the use of virtual wards. By boosting the capacity and accessibility of these services, people can receive the care they need closer to home, reducing the need to call an ambulance or attend accident and emergency.

NHS 111 continues to play a crucial role in managing demand by providing clinical advice and triage over the phone or online, ensuring patients are directed to the most appropriate service for their needs. This includes supporting more ‘hear and treat’ and ‘see and treat’ responses, where patients receive advice or treatment without the need for an ambulance to convey them to hospital.

NHS England is responsible for determining allocations of financial resources to integrated care boards (ICBs) The process of setting allocations is informed by the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation (ACRA), an independent committee that provides advice to NHS England on setting the target formula, which impacts how allocations are distributed over time.

Under the supervision of the ACRA, the funding formulae for ICB commissioned services in the National Health Service are under a rolling programme of review and update. Following the 10-Year Health Plan, NHS England commissioned ACRA to review: the findings of the Chief Medical Officer’s recent reports on health across different communities to provide assurance that the factors discussed in the reports have been considered for inclusion in the ICB allocations formulae; and how the setting of ICB allocations can better support the reduction of health inequalities to ensure that resources are targeted where they are most needed.

These reviews are expected to be completed by autumn 2026.

Unitary Charge payments associated with Private Finance Initiative contracts are captured in the annual National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority data collection, available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pfi-and-pf2-projects-2024-summary-data

Appointments cancelled by hospitals or other National Health Service authorities do not appear in statistics as completed appointments. For admitted patients, the Department does not hold data on the cause of cancellations or where patients did not attend their operation.

Data on the number of last-minute cancelled operations is published by NHS England. Last minute means on the day the patient was due to arrive, after the patient has arrived in hospital or on the day of the operation or surgery. It does not include cancelled operations before the day of the operation. Data is available by year and quarter and includes the number of cancellations and the percentage these represent of total elective admissions. This is available at the following link, within the ‘Time Series’ report:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancelled-elective-operations/cancelled-ops-data/

For outpatient appointments, data on cancellations and patients that did not attend their appointment is published by NHS England. Data is available by year and includes the number of cancellations, whether these were hospital or patient cancellations, and the percentage these represent of total elective admissions. This is available on the following link, within "Hospital Outpatient Activity, 2024-25: Report Tables":

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-outpatient-activity/2024-25

Appointments cancelled by hospitals or other National Health Service authorities do not appear in statistics as completed appointments. For admitted patients, the Department does not hold data on the cause of cancellations or where patients did not attend their operation.

Data on the number of last-minute cancelled operations is published by NHS England. Last minute means on the day the patient was due to arrive, after the patient has arrived in hospital or on the day of the operation or surgery. It does not include cancelled operations before the day of the operation. Data is available by year and quarter and includes the number of cancellations and the percentage these represent of total elective admissions. This is available at the following link, within the ‘Time Series’ report:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancelled-elective-operations/cancelled-ops-data/

For outpatient appointments, data on cancellations and patients that did not attend their appointment is published by NHS England. Data is available by year and includes the number of cancellations, whether these were hospital or patient cancellations, and the percentage these represent of total elective admissions. This is available on the following link, within "Hospital Outpatient Activity, 2024-25: Report Tables":

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-outpatient-activity/2024-25

Appointments cancelled by hospitals or other National Health Service authorities do not appear in statistics as completed appointments. For admitted patients, the Department does not hold data on the cause of cancellations or where patients did not attend their operation.

Data on the number of last-minute cancelled operations is published by NHS England. Last minute means on the day the patient was due to arrive, after the patient has arrived in hospital or on the day of the operation or surgery. It does not include cancelled operations before the day of the operation. Data is available by year and quarter and includes the number of cancellations and the percentage these represent of total elective admissions. This is available at the following link, within the ‘Time Series’ report:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancelled-elective-operations/cancelled-ops-data/

For outpatient appointments, data on cancellations and patients that did not attend their appointment is published by NHS England. Data is available by year and includes the number of cancellations, whether these were hospital or patient cancellations, and the percentage these represent of total elective admissions. This is available on the following link, within "Hospital Outpatient Activity, 2024-25: Report Tables":

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/hospital-outpatient-activity/2024-25

The diagnosis of placenta accreta spectrum is primarily done in the antenatal period using ultrasound imaging. To ensure effective diagnosis and management of placenta accreta spectrum, national guidance is provided within the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Placenta Praevia and Placenta Accreta: Diagnosis and Management Guideline. The NICE guidance and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ guidelines are available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng192/documents/draft-guideline-2

https://www.rcog.org.uk/guidance/browse-all-guidance/green-top-guidelines/placenta-praevia-and-placenta-accreta-diagnosis-and-management-green-top-guideline-no-27a/

In 2020, NHS England commissioned placenta accreta networks in the United Kingdom to support local and regional screening, shared protocols, and co-ordinated referral pathways to specialist pregnancy accreta centres. These centres consist of highly experienced multidisciplinary teams with the expertise to manage this condition and improve the safety outcomes for women and babies.

No assessment has been made of the potential impact of redundancy on access to levy-funded development for experienced National Health Service staff.

The Department for Education issues guidance for all apprentices who are at risk of redundancy, which is available on their website. This sets out the terms for supporting apprentices at risk of redundancy and for continuing to fund their apprenticeships following redundancy.

To further bolster training opportunities for experienced NHS staff, NHS England is expanding some national leadership and development offers, increasing flexible and mid-career offers, and widening access based on skills and potential rather than linear progression. Additional targeted outreach and career support are being used in places to encourage participation from experienced staff, including during periods of organisational change.

NHS Online will be a new, optional online service allowing patients to digitally connect with clinicians across England. When a patient is referred to NHS Online, should a consultation be required, they will see the next available specialist, who may be anywhere in the country. For patients who are diagnosed with menopause or menstrual disorders conditions, where the NHS Online clinician determines that in-person specialist services are the appropriate treatment, they will be transferred to appropriate local services, including in-person specialist care.

Patients will always have the choice of face-to-face appointments, and those who need physical examinations or procedures will continue to receive them either at hospital or local hubs nearby. If a patient displays more complex symptoms after the original referral to NHS Online, then they can be referred back on to a more traditional pathway.

In March 2024, the Department launched a campaign to raise awareness of high blood pressure, or hypertension, and to encourage those eligible to get checked for free at their local pharmacy. The campaign ran for three weeks with advertising on television, video-on-demand, social media, and on poster sites near to pharmacies, in addition to public relations and partnerships support.

Visits to the National Health Service pharmacy look-up tool increased by over 967%, and there were 117,546 visits to the tool over the campaign period, compared to 12,154 in the three weeks prior to the campaign launch. In March 2024, 50,046 more people got life-saving blood pressure checks than in the same period the previous year, a 42% uplift. In April 2024, there were 76,627 more checks, equivalent to a 66% uplift.

We continue to invest heavily in the community pharmacy hypertension service, and since October 2021, pharmacies have delivered nearly 4.2 million blood pressure and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring checks. In addition, the NHS Blood Pressure @Home initiative has delivered over 220,000 blood pressure monitors to enable at-risk patients to measure their blood pressure remotely.

Both the North Bristol NHS Trust and the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust have dedicated maternity bereavement teams who provide support for families experiencing baby loss. This includes practical help with funeral arrangements, accessing financial support, and investigations, as well as ongoing emotional support, attending appointments, and supporting them when meeting and making memories with their baby.

Counselling or access to psychological support are available, and spiritual or religious support is provided by chaplaincy teams in collaboration with external religious leaders at the family's request. Support for families during subsequent pregnancy is also provided.

Local teams ensure all those experiencing early pregnancy loss are made aware of the resources available to them through partners and charities, many of whom they work with regularly, and will signpost families on to them where appropriate for ongoing support.

The single greatest risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) is raised blood pressure and as set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, we will publish a modern service framework for CVD later this year. The framework will identify the best evidenced interventions, set clear quality standards, drive innovation in CVD prevention and management, and reduce unwarranted variation.

We have invested heavily in hypertension case-finding for those over 40 years old in community pharmacies. As part of the service, pharmacies have delivered nearly 4.2 million blood pressure and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring checks since October 2021 and as of August 2024, 7,641 pharmacies were actively delivering the service.

The information requested is not held in this format in the Department’s accounts system and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The Department’s Community Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Fund delivered 3080 new AEDs to local communities between September 2023 and February 2025.

The Government’s position is that local communities are best placed to make decisions about procuring, locating and maintaining AEDs. Over 110,000 defibrillators are registered in the United Kingdom on The Circuit, the independent AED database. Over 30,000 of these have been added in the past two years, many as a result of local community-led action.

More broadly, Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board is taking a whole system approach to improving cardiovascular health including improving the detection and treatment of key cardiac risk factors. The action being taken aims to lower the incidence of sudden cardiac arrest associated with unmanaged arrhythmia, high blood pressure and advanced coronary disease.

Data on chronic kidney disease (CKD) prevalence nationally and locally is available at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/search/chronic%20kidney%20disease#page/4/gid/1/pat/159/par/K02000001/ati/15/are/E92000001/iid/258/age/168/sex/4/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/1/cid/4/tbm/1

NHS England’s Renal Clinical Network Specification states that the patient population in England with advanced kidney disease requiring renal replacement therapy is growing at a rate of 3% per annum. NHS England’s Renal Clinical Network Specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/PRN231110-renal-clinical-network-specification-2023-.pdf

To tackle this, NHS England is delivering a comprehensive programme to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of people with kidney disease. NHS England has published a renal services transformation toolkit to support earlier identification of CKD and to strengthen management across the whole patient pathway.

Eight commissioned regional renal clinical networks are implementing this toolkit, in collaboration with providers, with a clear focus on improving early diagnosis, slowing disease progression, and reducing the number of patients reaching advanced stages of kidney disease. This work is supported nationally by the Renal Clinical Reference Group.

NHS England is also supporting the Department and key kidney organisations to identify further opportunities to enhance prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and long‑term outcomes for people living with kidney disease.

Data on chronic kidney disease (CKD) prevalence nationally and locally is available at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/search/chronic%20kidney%20disease#page/4/gid/1/pat/159/par/K02000001/ati/15/are/E92000001/iid/258/age/168/sex/4/cat/-1/ctp/-1/yrr/1/cid/4/tbm/1

NHS England’s Renal Clinical Network Specification states that the patient population in England with advanced kidney disease requiring renal replacement therapy is growing at a rate of 3% per annum. NHS England’s Renal Clinical Network Specification is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/PRN231110-renal-clinical-network-specification-2023-.pdf

To tackle this, NHS England is delivering a comprehensive programme to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of people with kidney disease. NHS England has published a renal services transformation toolkit to support earlier identification of CKD and to strengthen management across the whole patient pathway.

Eight commissioned regional renal clinical networks are implementing this toolkit, in collaboration with providers, with a clear focus on improving early diagnosis, slowing disease progression, and reducing the number of patients reaching advanced stages of kidney disease. This work is supported nationally by the Renal Clinical Reference Group.

NHS England is also supporting the Department and key kidney organisations to identify further opportunities to enhance prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and long‑term outcomes for people living with kidney disease.