Department of Health and Social Care

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

I refer the Rt Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon on 23 February 2026 to Question 113205.

Employers across the National Health Service have their own arrangements in place in line with their duty of care for supporting their staff, including occupational health provision, employee support programmes, and board level scrutiny through health and wellbeing guardians.

The 10-Year Health Plan committed to the roll out of Staff Treatment Hubs, to provide a high-quality, wellbeing and occupational health service for all NHS staff, including musculoskeletal conditions, one of the main causes of sickness absence in the NHS. Work is underway to develop implementation plans for the Staff Treatments Hubs.

We are also working with Nuffield Health to support NHS staff to access their Joint Pain Programme. The programme is aimed at those staff who are off work due to chronic joint pain or struggling with pain whilst at work and will create up to 4,000 free places annually.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out ambitious plans to boost mental health support across the country. This includes transforming mental health services into community-based mental health centres, improving assertive outreach and access to timely mental health care, expanding talking therapies, and giving patients better access to 24/7 support directly through the NHS App.

The plan will build on the work that has already begun to bring down waiting lists. This includes providing an extra £688 million in Government funding this year to transform mental health services, in order to hire more staff, deliver more early interventions, and get waiting lists down. Almost 8,000 additional mental health workers have been recruited since July 2025, latest data shows.

The latest recruitment milestone means the government has almost reached its target of hiring an additional 8,500 mental health staff, helping get people the care they need so they can get back to work, school and doing what they love.

As part of the Government’s National Health Service 10‑Year Health Plan commitment to deliver a single patient record, we are supporting healthcare professionals to access important medical information about patients by investing £20 million in the Connecting Care Records programme. This programme ensures authorised health and care professionals in England have safe and secure access to the person-related information that they need to provide care when they need it, where they need it, and how they need it.

No formal assessment has been made of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by hospices and other palliative care providers. The majority of hospices are independent charitable organisations and so are free to make their own decisions regarding the adoption and deployment of AI tools.

NHS England is dedicated to enabling the safe deployment and adoption of AI technologies, providing clear guidance on approval, implementation, information governance, security, privacy, and controls. NHS England provides guidance on how technologies should be selected, deployed, and scaled to ensure they are safe, effective, and eligible for National Health Service adoption, including accuracy. NHS trusts are expected to ensure that access to the AI tools they employ is safe, ethical, effective, and equitable for all within their remit.

Strict safeguards are in place across the NHS to guarantee patient safety, and data protection. All NHS organisations, including NHS palliative care and end-of-life care services, are expected to comply with Medical Devices Regulations (SI 2002 No 618, as amended) (UK MDR 2002) and digital clinical safety standards.

Providers handling patient data must comply with UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. Each health organisation is required to appoint a Caldicott Guardian, whose role is to advise on the protection and proper use of health and care data, including where AI is involved.

The Government is committed to ensuring people can access urgent dental care when they need it. Over the past year, integrated care boards (ICBs) have been commissioning additional urgent dental appointments and there is now an urgent care safety net available in all areas of the country.

We are broadening the scope of the commitment to deliver additional appointments so that they can be used for more patients, not just those who meet the clinical criteria for “urgent” care. This will allow ICBs to use the extra commissioned capacity more flexibly and deliver more appointments, ensuring resources reach those who genuinely need treatment. Each ICB is responsible for commissioning dental services in their area from local providers.

We will ensure a continued urgent care safety net by requiring, from April 2026, high street dentists to deliver 8.2% of their total contract value as urgent or unscheduled care.

The Mid and South Essex ICB, which includes the South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency, delivered 53,376 additional courses of treatment in the first seven months of this financial year, from April to October 2025, compared to the corresponding months of the year before the general election.

The Government is committed to ensuring people can access urgent dental care when they need it. Over the past year, integrated care boards (ICBs) have been commissioning additional urgent dental appointments and there is now an urgent care safety net available in all areas of the country.

We are broadening the scope of the commitment to deliver additional appointments so that they can be used for more patients, not just those who meet the clinical criteria for “urgent” care. This will allow ICBs to use the extra commissioned capacity more flexibly and deliver more appointments, ensuring resources reach those who genuinely need treatment. Each ICB is responsible for commissioning dental services in their area from local providers.

We will ensure a continued urgent care safety net by requiring, from April 2026, high street dentists to deliver 8.2% of their total contract value as urgent or unscheduled care.

The Mid and South Essex ICB, which includes the South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency, delivered 53,376 additional courses of treatment in the first seven months of this financial year, from April to October 2025, compared to the corresponding months of the year before the general election.

Community health services are a fundamental part of the health and care system and an essential building block in developing a neighborhood health service.

We know people are waiting too long for community services. That is why, for the first time, we have set a clear target for systems to work to reduce long waits in NHS England’s Medium-Term Planning Framework.

The Medium Term Planning Framework outlines how integrated care boards (ICBs) should strengthen community services in line with the left shift ambitions set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. Specifically, it asks that in 2026/27 all ICBs:

- increase community health service capacity to meet growth in demand, expected to be approximately 3% nationally per year; and

- actively manage long waits for community health services, reducing the proportion of waits over 18 weeks and developing a plan to eliminate all 52-week waits.

As part of the medium term planning process, and to hold the system to account, ICBs have to submit plans which set out how they will implement this ambition. NHS England is currently in the process of assuring these plans and will continue to monitor their implementation.

To support the shift to neighbourhood health, we published in 2025 an overview of the core community health services, called Standardising Community Health Services, that ICBs should consider when planning for their local populations to support improved commissioning and delivery of community health services, a vital part of neighbourhood health. Further guidance was published in February 2026, providing more detailed descriptions of the core components of community health services for ICBs. Codifying community health services will help to better assess demand and capacity. It will also help commissioners make investment choices as they design neighbourhood health provision that shifts care to community-based settings.

Community health services are a fundamental part of the health and care system and an essential building block in developing a neighbourhood health service.

We know people are waiting too long for community services. That is why, for the first time, we have set a clear target for systems to work to reduce long waits in NHS England’s Medium-Term Planning Framework.

The Medium Term Planning Framework outlines how integrated care boards (ICBs) should strengthen community services in line with the left shift ambitions set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. Specifically, it asks that in 2026/27 all ICBs:

- increase community health service capacity to meet growth in demand, expected to be approximately 3% nationally per year;

- actively manage long waits for community health services, reducing the proportion of waits over 18 weeks and developing a plan to eliminate all 52-week waits.

As part of the medium term planning process, ICBs should ensure community health services are adequately funded to meet these targets, and must submit plans which set out how they will implement this ambition. NHS England is currently in the process of assuring these plans and will continue to monitor their implementation.

To support the shift to neighbourhood health, we published in 2025 an overview of the core community health services, called Standardising Community Health Services, that ICBs should consider when planning for their local populations to support improved commissioning and delivery of community health services, a vital part of neighbourhood health. Further guidance was published in February 2026, providing more detailed descriptions of the core components of community health services for ICBs. Codifying community health services will help to better assess demand and capacity. It will also help commissioners make investment choices as they design neighbourhood health provision that shifts care to community-based settings.

The following table shows the available data for the number of National Health Service urgent dental treatments and total courses of dental treatments delivered each month from July 2024 to October 2025:

Source: Monthly National Dental Activity data – England July 2023 to October 2025, available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/dental-activity-data-england-july-2023-to-october-2025

Data for April 2025 to October 2025 should be treated as provisional. Final data for 2025/26 will be published in August 2026. Data for dentistry is measured in courses of treatment, not appointments. One course of treatment can be more than one appointment.

1.8 million additional courses of NHS dental treatment have been delivered in the seven months between April and October 2025, compared to the same period before the general election, nearly half of which were delivered to children.

We are broadening the scope of the commitment to deliver additional appointments so that they can be used for more patients, not just those who meet the clinical criteria for “urgent” care.

We will ensure a continued urgent care safety net by requiring, from April 2026, high street dentists to deliver 8.2% of their total contract value as urgent or unscheduled care.

No central assessment has been made of the adequacy of Dementia Assessment Services in Shropshire. The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards and ensuring they are responsive to the needs of local communities.

However, NHS England does collect and publish data about people with dementia at each general practice (GP) in England, including those in Shropshire, to enable National Health Service GPs and commissioners to make informed choices about how to plan their dementia services around patients’ needs.

GPs also provide a count of patients up to the end of the reporting period who have received an assessment for dementia and who have received or declined an initial memory assessment, a referral to a memory clinic, a care plan, a care plan review, and/or a medication review.

The provision of dementia health care services is the responsibility of local integrated care boards (ICBs). Therefore no central assessment has been made of the adequacy of care for people who have received dementia diagnoses in the context of the contribution of continued activity and social engagement for slowing the progression of dementia. We expect ICBs to commission services based on local population needs, taking account of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, and oversee the quality of the services they commission.

We will deliver the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity. The Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia and will set national standards for dementia care and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best possible care and support.

The Government will consider the capital funding needs of adult social care as part of the next Spending Review. We have recently announced an additional £50 million for the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) in 2025/26. This could fund approximately 5,000 home adaptations supporting older and disabled people to live more independently in their homes, and brings the total DFG amount this year to £761 million. We have also confirmed £723 million for the DFG in 2026/27. The DFG budget across 2025/26 and 2026/27 is £150 million more than the total budget across the previous two years, 2023/24 and 2024/25. This represents an 11% increase that exceeds inflation.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes assessing current and future local provision of adult social care services and working with their local market to ensure that both present and anticipated demand can be met.

This data is not held by the Department or NHS England.

The Government is committed to transparency in reporting patient harm in the National Health Service. The Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service allows frontline workers in NHS providers to record and analyse their own patient safety incidents in order to identify trends. At the national level, NHS England reviews hundreds of incidents each week via LFPSE, looking for risks that can be acted on, including by issuing National Patient Safety Alerts and collaborating with partners to address issues identified.

We recognise that urgent and emergency care performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years and are committed to restoring the waiting standards set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of this Parliament, as outlined in the Medium-Term Planning Framework, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/medium-term-planning-framework-delivering-change-together-2026-27-to-2028-29/

NHS England has also published guidance on the Model Emergency Department, setting out core principles and pathways for high-performing emergency departments, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/the-model-emergency-department-high-performing-urgent-and-emergency-care-pathways/

We are also taking action to tackle corridor care by introducing new reporting arrangements and committing to publishing data on its prevalence for the first time, improving transparency and driving operational improvement. Where corridor care cannot be avoided, updated guidance has been published to support trusts to deliver it safely, while maintaining patient dignity and privacy. The updated guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/principles-for-providing-patient-care-in-corridors/

NHS England commissions all services across the prison estate to be equivalent with those expected to be received in the community, including for cancer care.

All people received into prison have an initial health screen on arrival into prison. This assessment focuses on initial risks and key medicines required and any referrals to other services for immediate assessment. Any concerns regarding failures in cancer care for people in prison should be escalated by prison healthcare to the local National Health Service Health and Justice Commissioner.

NHS England expects all providers and healthcare professionals providing any NHS funded or commissioned service to have appropriate and relevant qualifications and work within the scope of their professional registration, including clinicians working to treat people in prison. Any women with a cancer diagnosis who require secondary or tertiary care should have access to these services as they would if they were in the community.

More information regarding assessments in relation to women diagnosed with cancer in prison can be found in the report, The health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate in England, published in November 2025 by Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer. A copy of this report is attached.

Through the National Cancer Plan, published on 4 February 2026, we are committed to supporting all people living with or recovering from cancer.

The Government has committed to guarantee a face-to-face appointment for all those who want one. The National Health Service is clear that general practices must provide face-to-face appointments, alongside remote consultations, and patients’ input into consultation type should be sought and their preferences for face-to-face care respected unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.

We are boosting capacity in general practice so patients can get the appointments they need, including face‑to‑face. We have invested £160 million through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to bring over 2,000 extra General Practitioners (GPs) into Primary Care Networks, increasing appointment availability across England.

We are investing a further £485 million in 2026/27, bringing the total spend on the GP contract to over £13.8 billion and introducing a new practice‑level GP reimbursement scheme. The scheme, worth £292 million, will fund additional GPs or more GP sessions with existing GPs, equivalent to around 1,600 full‑time GPs nationally. This will strengthen capacity, improve access to face-to-face appointments and improve patient satisfaction.

The following table shows the number of National Health Service dental treatments delivered in the first seven months of the 2025/26 financial year, in the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board:

Source: Monthly National Dental Activity data – England July 2023 to October 2025, available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/dental-activity-data-england-july-2023-to-october-2025

In addition, the following table shows the available data for the number of NHS dental treatments delivered in 2023/24 and 2024/25, in the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board:

Source: dental statistics for England 2024/25 and 2023/24, available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202425

Data for dentistry is measured in courses of treatment, not appointments. One course of treatment can be more than one appointment. Data on the number of NHS dental appointments cancelled is not held.

The data for 2023/24 and 2024/25 are not directly comparable with the 2025/26 data due to the 2025/26 data being provisional. Final data for 2025/26 will be published in August 2026. Furthermore, the 2025/26 data covers 7 months of activity, but the 2023/24 and 2024/25 data covers the full 12-month period.

The number of patients per full time equivalent (FTE) fully qualified general practitioner (GP) was 1,938 in September 2015 compared to 2,133 in January 2026, including GPs employed by primary care networks. To reach the same number of patients per fully qualified GP today, we would need an additional 3,012 FTE GPs. However, the GP workforce has changed significantly since 2015 with a wider range of professionals working in GPs. There’s currently an additional 38,265 FTE direct patient care staff working in primary care, including nurses, physiotherapists, and pharmacists.

Thanks to actions taken by the Government, we currently have the highest number of fully qualified GPs since 2015, and steps are being taken to grow the GP workforce further.

As part of the 2026/27 GP Contract, we are increasing the flexibility of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) by removing the restriction that ARRS funding can only be used for recently qualified GPs, increasing the maximum reimbursement amount for GP roles to reflect experience, and enabling primary care networks to recruit a broader range of ARRS roles, where agreed with the commissioner.

Following feedback from the 2026/27 GP Contract consultation, we are introducing a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme which ring-fences and repurposes £292 million of funding from the current Capacity and Access Payment. This funding will be available to practices to hire additional GPs or fund additional sessions with existing GPs to improve access in GPs. This aims to strengthen capacity, access, and improve patient satisfaction, whilst also addressing GP unemployment and underemployment.

The Government wants a society where every person with dementia receives high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life.

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. The MSF will drive improvements in the services that patients and their families receive at the end of life and enable integrated care boards to address challenges in access, quality, and sustainability through the delivery of high-quality, personalised care.

Under the 10-Year Health Plan, those living with dementia and frailty will benefit from improved care planning and better services.   We will deliver the first ever Frailty and Dementia MSF to deliver rapid and significant improvements in quality of care and productivity.

The Frailty and Dementia MSF will seek to reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality for those living with dementia and frailty. It will support this by setting national standards for dementia and frailty care and redirecting NHS and adult social care priorities to provide the best possible care and support. In developing the Frailty and Dementia MSF, we are engaging with a wide group of partners to understand what should be included to ensure the best outcomes for people living with dementia.

The Government assesses the funding required for adult social care, which considers a wide range of factors. This assessment is considered alongside other Government priorities through the Spending Review process to inform decisions about how available public sector funding is distributed.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes commissioning a diverse range of care and support services that enable people to access quality care. Conditions in local care markets can vary across the country and local authorities are best placed to understand and respond to these local market conditions. The Department has not carried out a specific assessment on the barriers to private sector capital investment in social care and any regional variations. While private adult social care providers are individual businesses and the Government does not intervene in their operations, we have been clear that the expectation is for adult social care providers to behave responsibly, including through sustainable financial arrangements that support the sector and meet needs as required.

The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England, for publication later this year.

The MSF will drive improvements in the services that patients and their families receive at the end of life and will enable integrated care boards to address challenges in access, quality, and sustainability through the delivery of high-quality, personalised care. This will be aligned with the ambitions set out in last year’s 10-Year Health Plan.

Further information about the MSF is set out in my Written Statement HCWS1087, made on 24 November 2025.

The following table shows the number of National Health Service dental treatments delivered in the first seven months of the 2025/26 financial year, in the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, which includes Preston and Lancashire:

Source: Monthly National Dental Activity data – England July 2023 to October 2025, available at the following link:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/dental-activity-data-england-july-2023-to-october-2025

In addition, the following table shows the available data for the number of NHS dental treatments delivered in 2023/24 and 2024/25 in the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board:

Source: Dental statistics for England for 2023/24 and 2024/25, available at the following link:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/dental-england/dental-statistics-england-202425

Data for dentistry is measured in courses of treatment, not appointments. One course of treatment can be more than one appointment. Data on the number of NHS dental appointments cancelled is not held.

The data for 2023/24 and 2024/25 are not directly comparable with the 2025/26 data due to the 2025/26 data being provisional. Final data for 2025/26 will be published in August 2026. Furthermore, the 2025/26 data covers seven months of activity, but the 2023/24 and 2024/25 data covers the full 12-month period.

The Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia will reduce unwarranted variation and narrow inequality in diagnosis and care for those living with dementia. It will set national standards and redirect National Health Service priorities to provide the best care and support.

Central to this modern service framework will be improved care and support and access to a timely and accurate diagnosis.

We are still developing plans for the Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia and, in doing so, we are engaging with a wide group of partners to understand what should be included to ensure the best outcomes for people living with dementia.

As part of this exercise, we are considering all options to help reduce variation, including reviewing existing guidance and pathways. This will include the D100: Pathway Assessment Tool and the Dementia Care Pathway, covering all elements of the Well Pathway from Prevention through to Dying Well.

We are working to develop the content as soon as possible and we will keep partners updated on progress and timings as this work unfolds.

The 10-Year Health Plan sets out that the NHS App will also allow patients to book appointments, communicate with professionals, receive advice, draft or view their care plan, and self-refer to local tests and services. These developments will streamline how patients move through the system and support clearer navigation of their care.

We are also improving digital access in general practices (GPs), including online request routes, modernising triage models, and strengthening care navigations. GPs are responsible for their own clinical knowledge and advising patients on the most appropriate care pathways. To support this, we are delivering the recommendations of the Red Tape Challenge to remove unnecessary administrative burdens between primary and secondary care. The new Advice and Guidance scheme gives GPs specialist advice, reducing unnecessary referrals and helping patients reach the right care first time.

There are no current plans to make training in palliative care and end-of-life care mandatory for health and care professionals.

We are committed to training the staff we need to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. To ensure the health and social care workforce is equipped and well supported to deliver personalised care to people at the end of life, Health Education England, now part of NHS England, hosts the End of Life Care for All e-learning training programme, which includes nine modules on improving care for people at the end of life.

Independent statutory regulatory bodies such as the General Medical Council (GMC) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council have the general function of promoting high standards of education and coordinating all stages of education to ensure that health and care students and newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for professional practice.

The training curricula for postgraduate specialty training, including palliative care and end-of-life care, is set by the relevant royal college and have to meet the standards set by the GMC.

For general practitioners (GPs), the Royal College for General Practice has established the GP with Extended Roles (GPwER) in Palliative and End of Life Care Framework. The GpwER framework sets out standards, capabilities, training requirements, supervision and governance for GPs working beyond core practice, including in palliative and end-of-life care.

The Government is committed to ensuring that people at the end of life can access the medicines they need, including outside of normal pharmacy opening hours.

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. This promotes a more consistent national approach and supports commissioners in prioritising palliative care and end-of-life care. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.

NHS England’s statutory guidance states that ICBs work with community pharmacies, out-of-hours providers and palliative care teams to ensure timely access to medicines, including through locally commissioned services that make end of life medicines available on a 24/7 basis.

Additionally, those nearing the end of life who are likely to need symptom control can be prescribed anticipatory medicines with written instructions for how to use or administer treatment. These medicines are often called 'just in case' medicines and may be provided in a specially marked container called a 'just in case' box. The medicines are prescribed in advance so that they can be obtained during local pharmacy opening hours and kept safely at home, or at a care home, so that the person or their carer has access to them if they develop symptoms. Providing medicines in advance means that there is no delay in getting medicines that might be needed quickly to help with symptoms. The use of anticipatory prescribing is recommended in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline, Care of dying adults in the last days of life.

Furthermore, the Government will publish a Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England later this year. The MSF will drive improvements in the services that patients and their families receive at the end of life and enable ICBs to address challenges in access, quality and sustainability through the delivery of high-quality, personalised care.

NHS England commissions all services across the prison estate to be equivalent with those expected to be received in the community, including for cancer care.

All people received into prison have an initial health screen on arrival into prison. This assessment focuses on initial risks and key medicines required and any referrals to other services for immediate assessment. Any concerns regarding failures in cancer care for people in prison should be escalated by prison healthcare to the local National Health Service Health and Justice Commissioner.

NHS England expects all providers and healthcare professionals providing any NHS funded or commissioned service to have appropriate and relevant qualifications and work within the scope of their professional registration, including clinicians working to treat people in prison. Any women with a cancer diagnosis who require secondary or tertiary care should have access to these services as they would if they were in the community.

More information regarding assessments in relation to women diagnosed with cancer in prison can be found in the report, The health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate in England, published in November 2025 by Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer. A copy of this report is attached.

Through the National Cancer Plan, published on 4 February 2026, we are committed to supporting all people living with or recovering from cancer.

NHS England commissions all services across the prison estate to be equivalent with those expected to be received in the community, including for cancer care.

All people received into prison have an initial health screen on arrival into prison. This assessment focuses on initial risks and key medicines required and any referrals to other services for immediate assessment. Any concerns regarding failures in cancer care for people in prison should be escalated by prison healthcare to the local National Health Service Health and Justice Commissioner.

NHS England expects all providers and healthcare professionals providing any NHS funded or commissioned service to have appropriate and relevant qualifications and work within the scope of their professional registration, including clinicians working to treat people in prison. Any women with a cancer diagnosis who require secondary or tertiary care should have access to these services as they would if they were in the community.

More information regarding assessments in relation to women diagnosed with cancer in prison can be found in the report, The health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate in England, published in November 2025 by Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer. A copy of this report is attached.

Through the National Cancer Plan, published on 4 February 2026, we are committed to supporting all people living with or recovering from cancer.

NHS England commissions all services across the prison estate to be equivalent with those expected to be received in the community, including for cancer care.

All people received into prison have an initial health screen on arrival into prison. This assessment focuses on initial risks and key medicines required and any referrals to other services for immediate assessment. Any concerns regarding failures in cancer care for people in prison should be escalated by prison healthcare to the local National Health Service Health and Justice Commissioner.

NHS England expects all providers and healthcare professionals providing any NHS funded or commissioned service to have appropriate and relevant qualifications and work within the scope of their professional registration, including clinicians working to treat people in prison. Any women with a cancer diagnosis who require secondary or tertiary care should have access to these services as they would if they were in the community.

More information regarding assessments in relation to women diagnosed with cancer in prison can be found in the report, The health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate in England, published in November 2025 by Professor Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer. A copy of this report is attached.

Through the National Cancer Plan, published on 4 February 2026, we are committed to supporting all people living with or recovering from cancer.