Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2026 to Question 89382 on Social Services: Investment, whether his Department plans to consider the (a) previous and (b) forecast (i) levels and (ii) adequacy of (A) private and (B) public sector capital funding in social care in England.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of care for people who have received dementia diagnoses, in the context of the contribution of (a) continued activity and (b) social engagement for slowing the progression of dementia.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of Dementia Assessment Services in Shropshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social 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.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the press release entitled Patients to benefit from improved access to dental appointments, published on 21 February 2026, how many (a) urgent and (b) additional dental appointments have been provided by the NHS in (i) total and (ii) each month since the General Election; and how many additional urgent dental appointments he expects the NHS to provide by the end of 2026-27 above the baseline he is using to monitor progress against his target.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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:
Treatment month (July 2024 to October 2025) | The number of urgent dental treatments delivered | The number of NHS dental treatments delivered |
July 2024 | 323,162 | 3,107,924 |
August 2024 | 290,178 | 2,954,258 |
September 2024 | 303,268 | 2,878,678 |
October 2024 | 324,990 | 3,340,505 |
November 2024 | 305,265 | 2,963,893 |
December 2024 | 307,611 | 2,499,861 |
January 2025 | 326,374 | 3,106,909 |
February 2025 | 280,959 | 3,066,611 |
March 2025 | 285,474 | 2,781,951 |
April 2025 | 310,741 | 3,251,218 |
May 2025 | 305,998 | 3,008,029 |
June 2025 | 308,110 | 2,958,788 |
July 2025 | 327,068 | 3,249,401 |
August 2025 | 293,708 | 2,926,398 |
September 2025 | 338,330 | 3,148,312 |
October 2025 | 346,099 | 3,461,661 |
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.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps are being taken by NHS England to improve the performance of integrated care boards that are making inadequate progress in increasing funding for community care.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they have put in place to enable assessment of the performance of integrated care boards in prioritising community care services.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of artificial intelligence technologies by hospice and palliative care providers; and what safeguards are in place to ensure that those technologies maintain patient safety, data protection and equitable access to high-quality end of life care.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
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, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Patients to benefit from improved access to dental appointments, published on 21 February 2026, how many additional urgent appointments will be available in (a) Basildon and (b) Thurrock as a result of the broadening of the scope of the target.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
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, pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Patients to benefit from improved access to dental appointments, published on 21 February 2026, how many additional urgent appointments each high street dentist will be required to provide.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve out-of-hours access to medicines for people at the end of life.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social 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.