Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Better Care Fund on reducing hospital discharge delays caused by shortages in social care provision.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Better Care Fund (BCF) provides around £9 billion in 2025/26 to support integrated planning between local authorities and integrated care boards, with reducing discharge delays identified as a key priority for local BCF plans.
From 2026/27, the BCF is being reformed to support services that help people regain independence, such as intermediate care, rehabilitation and reablement services, prevent avoidable admissions, and support timely discharge from hospital. Over £9 billion will be committed to the BCF in 2026/27, and local systems will be expected to improve intermediate care by increasing capacity, ensuring services can meet demand, and strengthening both homebased and bed-based provision to reduce delays linked to social care provision.
Whilst the Department has made no specific assessment of the potential impact of the BCF on reducing hospital discharge delays caused by shortages in social care, the Government recognises the importance of supporting more timely discharge.
Previous research funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) has shown that the BCF helps reducing discharge delays though it did not specify whether these were caused by social care provision. More information is available at the following link:
https://kar.kent.ac.uk/77827/1/bcf.pdf
From August 2025, NHS England has started to publish data on the cost of discharge. This is available at the following link:
The publication includes the estimated cost of discharge delays due to capacity for people who have been in hospital seven days or longer. However, it is not possible to say whether the delays were caused by capacity constraints in social care, the National Health Service or elsewhere.
This analysis does not include wider costs, such as opportunity cost of care foregone by not being able to admit other patients, or the cost to the patient themselves of being in an inappropriate setting. The estimates do not consider the alternative cost of providing health and care support to patients outside of the acute hospital setting if these patients were not delayed in hospital.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of an ageing prison population on demand for healthcare services within prisons.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As a signatory to the National Partnership Agreement for Health and Social Care for people in contact with the criminal justice system, the Department of Health and Social Care is committed to working with the Ministry of Justice, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency to ensure safe, legal, decent and effective care that improves health outcomes and reduces health inequalities is provided for all prisoners, including those who are elderly.
NHS England is responsible for providing a full range of healthcare services to meet the needs of the prison population. Every prison will have a health needs assessment undertaken on a regular basis which is then used to locally determine the health needs and requirements of that prison’s population. This includes supporting elderly prisoners on their palliative care, end of life care and other health needs such as dementia care. Local authorities also have a duty to support elderly prisoners with their social care needs.
The Dying Well in Custody Charter and supporting self-assessment framework describes a set of national standards for local adoption and provides a tool for a local multi-disciplinary approach to providing agreed standards of palliative and end of life care to people in prison. The Charter is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/dying-well-in-custody-charter/
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 improve access to community dental services for care home residents in the West Midlands.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be particularly vulnerable to oral health problems and may find it difficult to access dental care. Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment in several settings, including care homes, and are commissioned by integrated care boards (ICBs), and for the Sutton Coldfield constituency this is the Birmingham and Solihull ICB.
Domiciliary dental services are commissioned locally to support those who are unable to access high street dental practices due to medical, physical, or psychological conditions. This is largely through community dental services (CDS), which carry the required expertise and equipment to treat individuals who are housebound or living in care settings. The frequency of dental checks for those living in care homes will be determined by dentists on an individual basis according to need, and care homes can contact their local CDS directly to request a domiciliary visit. If the provider is unknown, the ICB or the relevant NHS England regional team can advise.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on oral health in care homes sets out a number of recommendations for care homes to help maintain and improve oral health and ensure timely access to dental treatment for their residents. The Government expects care homes to be following NICE guidance and recommendations in this area.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 9 February (HL13391), what was the composition of the group of integrated care board (ICB) chief executive officers subject to compulsory redundancy in August 2025; and whether that group consisted only of those from ICBs being abolished or merged, or if it included leaders of boards that remained as standalone entities.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold a centrally collated breakdown of individual integrated care board (ICB) chief executive officer cases who were subject to compulsory redundancy, as such matters sit with ICBs as independent statutory employers.
This was a structural redundancy exercise, arising directly from the reduction in the number of ICBs from 42 to 26 under system reform. Only chief executive officers whose roles ceased to exist because their ICB was abolished or merged were in scope for compulsory redundancy in line with their contractual terms and conditions of service. Chief executives of ICBs that continued as standalone organisations were not included in the redundancy group.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much financial borrowing has been enabled by NHS trusts due to their foundation trust status in the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We do not hold a comprehensive breakdown of National Health Service foundation trusts (FTs) borrowing from commercial lenders, so it is not possible to answer the specific question asked.
However, the Department provides financing for FTs in the form of Public Dividend Capital at 3.5% dividend rate and loans at interest rates at below market rates.
The lower costs and lower risks, for example terms relating to default of commercial borrowing, of obtaining finance from the Department has meant that commercial borrowing has not been typically needed.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a cross-government alcohol strategy.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that alcohol-related harm has wide ranging impacts across health, crime, productivity, and communities.
Commitments to addressing harms from alcohol feature in several of the Government's current strategies and plans. The National Health Service 10-Year Health Plan outlines crucial steps to help people make healthier choices about alcohol, including making it a legal requirement for alcohol labels to display health warnings and consistent nutritional information. This was reemphasised in the National Cancer Plan. The Men’s Health Strategy outlines the impact alcohol can have on men’s health, and announced the pilot of a new brief intervention to target the rise in cardiovascular disease deaths from combined alcohol and cocaine use among older men. To support better outcomes for people experiencing harmful drinking, the first ever United Kingdom clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment were published in November 2025.
The Government keeps the evidence on alcohol-related harm and the effectiveness of different policy approaches under review, and continues to consider how cross-Government action can best support improvements in population health and reduce health inequalities.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department provides to integrated care boards on supporting vulnerable people, including those with mental health conditions, cognitive impairment or learning disabilities, to safely self-administer insulin.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving the integration between community mental health services and other physical health services and meeting the holistic needs of people with severe mental health problems is a priority, as set out in the Community Mental Health Framework.
Recognising the continued need to further support services to provide high quality personalised care for all patients needing secondary mental health services, including those with diabetes, NHS England has shared new draft guidance with systems, the Mental Health Personalised Care Framework, which sets out how services must effectively assess, plan, and manage people's care in collaboration with all relevant teams, including how they assess safety and risks of harm.
The Health Services Safety Investigation Body recently published a report Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a mental health problem, which recommended that NHS England and the Department develop a strategy for improving collaboration between mental health teams and specialist diabetes services. A formal response to this recommendation will be published in May 2026.
Asked by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
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 national implementation plan on insulin safety for those with mental health conditions.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving the integration between community mental health services and other physical health services and meeting the holistic needs of people with severe mental health problems is a priority, as set out in the Community Mental Health Framework.
Recognising the continued need to further support services to provide high quality personalised care for all patients needing secondary mental health services, including those with diabetes, NHS England has shared new draft guidance with systems, the Mental Health Personalised Care Framework, which sets out how services must effectively assess, plan, and manage people's care in collaboration with all relevant teams, including how they assess safety and risks of harm.
The Health Services Safety Investigation Body recently published a report Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a mental health problem, which recommended that NHS England and the Department develop a strategy for improving collaboration between mental health teams and specialist diabetes services. A formal response to this recommendation will be published in May 2026.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
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 the potential to scale up investment in dementia clinical trials, including through the Dementia Goals Programme.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering dementia research is shared between the Department for Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The Department for Health and Social Care is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with dementia, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments. Government funding is already enabling the dementia clinical trials landscape to become more efficient and accessible.
The Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme, with up to £150 million expected to be allocated to, or aligned with it, aims to speed up the development of new treatments for dementia and neurodegenerative conditions by accelerating innovations in biomarkers, clinical trials, and implementation.
Closely aligned to the programme, the NIHR has invested up to £50 million into the UK Demetia Trials Network (UKDTN). UKDTN aims to expand the United Kingdom’s early phase clinical trial capabilities in dementia by addressing industry challenges around trial recruitment and fragmented research infrastructure. The UKDTN will establish a coordinated network of over 20 trial sites, with a real-time database to enable efficient identification of trial sites for industry collaboration. The network will also build a skilled workforce of dementia trial specialists, including early-career researchers, and embedded research nurses to support trial set-up and delivery.
In addition, the Medical Research Council’s £20 million investment into a Dementia Trials Accelerator aims to embed more innovation in how clinical trials are designed and delivered in order to increase the speed and quality, while driving down the cost of large-scale trials.
In partnership with Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer’s Research UK, and Alzheimer Scotland, the NIHR also delivers Join Dementia Research, an online platform which enables the involvement of people with and without a dementia diagnosis, as well as carers, to take part in a range of important research, including studies evaluating potential treatments for dementia. As of March 2026, over 110,000 participants have joined dementia research through the service, with 112 studies currently open.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase the number and capacity of dementia trials.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering dementia research is shared between the Department for Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The Department for Health and Social Care is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with dementia, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments. Government funding is already enabling the dementia clinical trials landscape to become more efficient and accessible.
The Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme, with up to £150 million expected to be allocated to, or aligned with it, aims to speed up the development of new treatments for dementia and neurodegenerative conditions by accelerating innovations in biomarkers, clinical trials, and implementation.
Closely aligned to the programme, the NIHR has invested up to £50 million into the UK Demetia Trials Network (UKDTN). UKDTN aims to expand the United Kingdom’s early phase clinical trial capabilities in dementia by addressing industry challenges around trial recruitment and fragmented research infrastructure. The UKDTN will establish a coordinated network of over 20 trial sites, with a real-time database to enable efficient identification of trial sites for industry collaboration. The network will also build a skilled workforce of dementia trial specialists, including early-career researchers, and embedded research nurses to support trial set-up and delivery.
In addition, the Medical Research Council’s £20 million investment into a Dementia Trials Accelerator aims to embed more innovation in how clinical trials are designed and delivered in order to increase the speed and quality, while driving down the cost of large-scale trials.
In partnership with Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer’s Research UK, and Alzheimer Scotland, the NIHR also delivers Join Dementia Research, an online platform which enables the involvement of people with and without a dementia diagnosis, as well as carers, to take part in a range of important research, including studies evaluating potential treatments for dementia. As of March 2026, over 110,000 participants have joined dementia research through the service, with 112 studies currently open.