Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to allow patients to access NHS dental care through the NHS App.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government currently has no plans to enable patients to access NHS dental care through the NHS App. However, NHS England routinely seeks opportunities to expand the functionality of the NHS App, and progress on including dental bookings in the functionality will depend on digital readiness and wider service commissioning provisions.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of (a) consultations and (b) reviews conducted by his Department since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Consultations and reviews form part of everyday policymaking in the Department, making it impossible to disaggregate a figure for salary costs specifically relating to consultations. Therefore, the information requested is not held.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's press release entitled AI to cut paperwork to free up doctors’ time for patients, published on 16 August 2025, if he will publish a definition for (a) medical expert and (b) full review.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not maintain statutory definitions of “medical expert” or “full review”. For the purposes of the press release issued on 16 August 2025, “medical expert” refers to a registered healthcare professional with relevant clinical expertise who contributes to the development or validation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and “full review” refers to a comprehensive assessment process that includes clinical safety, data governance, and regulatory compliance checks prior to the deployment of AI systems within National Health Service settings.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's press release entitled AI to cut paperwork to free up doctors’ time for patients, published on 16 August 2025, if he will make an estimate of the time saved per patient discharge.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold a single national figure for time saved per patient discharge across all National Health Service settings. However, trials referenced in the Department’s press release of 16 August 2025 and subsequent trials indicate that the use of ambient voice technology and other artificial intelligence-enabled tools can significantly reduce administrative burden. For example, one London-wide trial found that ambient voice technology reduced time spent on paperwork by approximately 51.7%, equating to an average saving of approximately six minutes per patient discharge summary. These figures are indicative and will vary depending on local implementation and clinical context.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2025 to Question 73473 on Health Services: Apprentices, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of funding the provision of those Level 7 apprenticeships in each of the next five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Funding for the continuation of Level 7 apprenticeships in five professions has been agreed by NHS England and the Department for courses starting from 1 January 2026 up to 31 March 2029. Funding can be used by employers to cover education costs which would previously have been funded through the apprenticeship levy.
Final expenditure is subject to the number of actual apprenticeship starts in each year. However, total funding will be capped annually, aligned to 2023/24 start numbers.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2025 to Question 73482 on Integrated Care Boards: Finance, if he will make an estimate of the potential impact of the use of five-year population projections on the level of funding from his Department for the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Allocations are determined through a complex, weighted capitation formula that incorporates multiple factors beyond population projections, including age, sex, need, and cost adjustments. Isolating the effect of a single component would not accurately reflect the complexities of the overall methodology.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 36 of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan, published on 3 July 2025, how the cost of operating Neighbourhood Health Centres will be shared amongst (a) local government, (b) the voluntary sector and (c) the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out on page 36 of the 10-Year Health Plan, neighbourhood health centres will provide easier, more convenient access to a full range of health and care services on people’s doorsteps, joining up National Health Service, local authority, and voluntary services as a one-stop shop.
Rollout of the neighbourhood health centres will be progressive over this Parliament, with early sites focused on areas of greatest need.
We are developing a National Framework for Neighbourhood Health Plans and Model Neighbourhood to provide greater clarity and consistency for systems in developing and scaling neighbourhood health.
This will provide a shared reference point to help shape and inform locally led approaches to neighbourhood health, which may include cost sharing amongst the systems and organisations involved in operating neighbourhood health centres.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of face-to-face GP appointments in 2025/26.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This 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. Since appointment types, whether face-to-face or remote, in any given year, including 2025/26, are determined based on patient preferences and clinical need, it is not possible to produce a reliable estimate for the number of face-to-face appointments for 2025/26.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the 10-Year Health Plan, what safeguards will be put in place to prevent hostile actors from accessing genomic data held by the NHS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All organisations that have access to National Health Service patient data and systems must use the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) to provide assurance on an annual basis that they are practising good data security and that personal information is handled correctly. In September 2025, we introduced the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) to aligned DSPTs in order to raise DSPT requirements for genomics organisations as suggested by the Department. The CAF is the National Cyber Security Centre’s framework and focuses on outcomes and principles to guide good decision-making, and the CAF-aligned DSPT return is supported by an independent audit to the mandated framework.
National cyber teams are tackling the changing cyber risk head-on through their ambitious Cyber Improvement Programme, expanding protection and services to better protect the health and care system, backed up with over £338 million of investment since 2017.
Patients who are offered whole genome sequencing through the NHS can consent to having their genomic data stored in the National Genomic Research Library (NGRL) which is run by Genomics England. Data stored in the NGRL is de-identified and access to it is carefully controlled, including through an independent Access Review Committee, which ensures that only approved individuals from approved institutions have access to the data. Approved researchers can only access the data within a Secure Research Environment for health research purposes and are not allowed to extract data from the library.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of GPs per head of population in Bedfordshire by 2035, in the context of the 10 Year Health Plan.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Each general practice (GP) is required to provide services to meet the reasonable needs of their patients. There is no NHS England recommendation for how many patients a GP should have assigned, or the ratio of GPs or other practice staff to patients. The demands each patient places on their GP are different and can be affected by many different factors, including rurality and patient demographics. It is necessary to consider the workforce for each practice as a whole, not only GPs but also the range of health professionals available who are able to respond to the needs of their patients.
We will publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade to treat patients on time again.