Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to bring forward a strategy for dental health research.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Whilst there are currently no plans to develop a dental health research strategy, the NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including dental research. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
The Department, through the NIHR, funds clinical academic training for doctors and dentists through the Integrated Academic Training Programme. This includes Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACFs) at the pre-doctoral level and Clinical Lectureships (CLs) at the post-doctoral level. Over the last five years, 91 ACFs and 24 CLs were recruited in dentistry.
The Department also funds the NIHR Oral Health Research Incubator, which is a researcher-led initiative aimed at building dental research capacity at the national level.
Ongoing research at Newcastle University is investigating the roles and skill utilisation of professionals in dental practice.
In addition, investments in NIHR infrastructure support the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities, and the life sciences industry. For example, through the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre’s Oral and Dental Medicine research theme.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 6 November 2025 to Question 83750 on Health Services: Innovation, what mechanisms are in place to monitor and evaluate the successful adoption and diffusion of health innovations across the NHS; which bodies are responsible for measuring this impact at (a) national and (b) regional levels; and how these findings inform future commissioning and policy decisions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No organisations hold a statutory responsibility specifically to monitor or evaluate the rates of the successful adoption and spread of health innovation in the National Health Service. However, the NHS Business Services Authority, on behalf of the Office for Life Sciences, publishes the Innovation Scorecard every six months. This is of significant use to the NHS and has been published since January 2013.
The Innovation Scorecard reports on the use of medicines and medicine groupings in the NHS in England, which have been positively appraised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). It reveals what NICE-recommended treatments are available at a local level within trusts and integrated care boards, as well as at national and NHS England region levels. Data limitations mean it cannot be used for performance management, but it does allow the NHS to identify variation, which, through discussion, can be explained, challenged, or acted upon.
Several organisations organise additional detailed evaluations for specific groups of health innovations. For example, the Health Innovation Network (HIN) oversees numerous national programmes which monitor the uptake and spread of selected health innovations. This helps them, and NHS England, determine how best to improve the uptake of these innovations.
Regionally, HINs also undertake monitoring and evaluation for selected innovations that they support. Integrated care boards and providers may also choose to conduct their own evaluations, using local data to understand whether innovations deliver expected improvements in outcomes or efficiency.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 13 November 2025 to Question 85147, what proportion of health research and development has been spent on dentistry in each of the past three years; and how the decision to allocate each sum to dentistry was arrived at.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 6 November 2025 to Question 85147 in which I noted that between 2022/23 and 2024/25 the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the Department’s research delivery arm, directly spent £18.2 million on research projects and programmes on dentistry research.
Programme funding allocated to a particular topic area is not calculated as a proportion of total NIHR spend. This is because, in addition to directly investing in research projects and programmes, the NIHR also provides investment for cross-cutting research delivery within the National Health Service and wider health and care system, including research facilities and workforce, known as NIHR infrastructure.
The NIHR funds research in response to receiving high-quality applications through regular funding opportunities. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how the Ambitions framework aligns with the NHS 10 Year Health Plan in the context of (a) the shift to neighbourhood health services, (b) integrated care and (c) preventative models of care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Ambitions Framework aligns with the 10-Year Health Plan in several ways, including both the foundations on which the framework is built, and the associated six ambitions. For example, the shift to neighbourhood health services aligns to education and training, community partnerships, population-based needs assessment, continuity partnership, and compassionate and resilient communities referenced in the Ambitions Framework.
Ambition 1, that each person is seen as an individual, specifically references integrated care as a key building block, with alignment also clear with regards to shared records, personalised care and support planning, access to social care, inclusion of specialist level care, and ensuring an overall system approach. Finally, preventative models of care for palliative care and end of life care are not curative, but improve quality of life, preventing avoidable escalations of need, including emergency care.
Therefore, alignment between the 10-Year Health Plan and the Ambitions Framework can be seen in the specific reference to rehabilitative palliative care and further complemented through 24/7 access, using new technology and improved use of existing and new data. Importantly, the Ambitions Framework was first published in 2015 and is due to be refreshed in 2026, providing further opportunity to align where appropriate.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the Department has spent on dental research in each of the last three years.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Between the 2022/23 and 2024/25 financial years, the NIHR directly spent £18.2 million on research projects and programmes on dentistry research. The following table shows the spend on dentistry research, to the nearest £100,000, from 2022/23 to 2024/25 and in total over that period:
Financial year | Spend |
2022/2023 | £5.1 million |
2023/2024 | £7.1 million |
2024/2025 | £6.1 million |
Total | £18.2 million |
The Department, through the NIHR, also funds clinical academic training for doctors and dentists through the Integrated Academic Training Programme. This includes Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACFs) at the pre-doctoral level and Clinical Lectureships (CLs) at the post-doctoral level. From 2022 to 2024, 53 ACFs and 15 CLs were recruited in dentistry, with an estimated total value of over £14 million across the duration of the awards.
In addition, investments in NIHR infrastructure, not included in the figures above, support the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities, and the life sciences industry. This has supported the delivery of over 50 studies and the recruitment of over 12,000 participants in research under the specialty area of oral and dental health in the last three financial years.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including dental research. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who is responsible for the (a) national and (b) regional (i) adoption and (ii) spread of health innovation within the NHS; and what role the Health Innovation Network and Integrated Care Systems play in this process.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Under the NHS Act 2006, NHS England has a statutory duty to promote innovation in the provision of health services. The Health and Care Act 2022 extends this duty to each integrated care board (ICB), requiring them to promote innovation as part of their planning and commissioning responsibilities.
Nationally, NHS England supports the adoption and spread of innovation through programmes such as the NHS Innovation Service, Clinical Entrepreneurs Programme, and the NHS Innovation Accelerator. NHS England also works alongside the Department and the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) to develop national policy and coordinate action to strengthen the health innovation ecosystem.
Innovation is a central theme of both the 10-Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan. The latter sets out specific actions and assigns senior responsible officers across NHS England, the Department, OLS, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, reflecting the shared national responsibility for supporting innovation.
Regionally, Health Innovation Networks (HINs), commissioned by NHS England and OLS, support the adoption and spread of innovations across England through, but not limited to, building capacity to serve integrated care system (ICS) needs, supporting ICSs with the roll-out of national innovation programmes, real-world evaluation, and supporting local-to-national adoption. Each HIN serves its local population but also works as part of a network to share learning and support the spread of innovation across England.
Ultimately, ICBs and National Health Service providers are the commissioners of services. They decide whether to procure new products, services, or technologies based on local priorities, evidence of benefit, affordability, and alignment with system plans.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Action 10 on page 22 of the Life Sciences Sector Plan, published on 16 July 2025, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that musculoskeletal conditions are included in plans to increase investment in health research and development focused on primary and secondary prevention and multiple long-term conditions.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including a variety of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions such as arthritis, including osteo, rheumatoid, psoriatic, juvenile arthritis, osteoporosis, and joint and back pain. This includes research on primary and secondary prevention of MSK and the interaction and co-concurrence of MSK with other long-term conditions. Current investments across the NIHR include:
- the UK Musculoskeletal Translational Research Collaboration, which works across all sectors of the health and care system to collate expertise, resources, and to develop novel innovations to benefit those experiencing MSK related conditions, with further information available at the following link:
https://www.nihr.ac.uk/about-us/what-we-do/infrastructure/translational-research-collaborations/musculosceletal;
- the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, which is evaluating new devices and surgical interventions, using large datasets to find new ways to identify and treat MSK conditions and testing new drug delivery systems to help treat MSK conditions, with further information available at the following link:
https://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/research-themes/musculoskeletal/; and
- a major research grant exploring whether long-term conditions such as arthritis can be predicted by a person’s level of inflammation. Predicting these conditions will enable better intervention, prevention, and treatment, with further information available at the following link:
https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR205461.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the adult oral health survey (a) before and (b) after the decision to no longer include the examination of patients in the survey.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There has been no comparative assessment of the effectiveness of the adult oral health survey (AOHS) before and after the changes in data collection. This decision occurred for the 2021 survey only, to adapt to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, where face to face examinations were not feasible. The most recent 2023 AOHS survey has reintroduced a clinical examination of participants.
An online and paper survey without an oral examination was undertaken in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from this survey, published in January 2024, are therefore not comparable to the rest of the survey series. The most recent AOHS, provisionally scheduled to be published on 9 December, is a comprehensive survey that will include results of an oral examination of consenting participants. The survey is similar in content to the one that was conducted in 2009 and published at the time by NHS Digital.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 (a) financial and (b) clinical impact of the Zimmer Biomet NexGen Legacy Posterior Stabilized (LPS) knee replacement system on the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a field safety notice (FSN) in December 2022 about some devices in the NexGen family of knee implants. The FSN was issued following notification by the National Joint Registry (NJR) Implant Scrutiny Committee in 2021.
The NexGen Stemmed Option Tibial Component was removed from the market because of that notice, although only use in combination with LPS Flex or LPS Flex GSF femoral components demonstrated higher revision rates, and only patients receiving the combination of devices were recommended to be reviewed.
As is standard with joint replacement FSNs, the NJR supplied hospitals with a list of all the patients who had this combination implant and were still alive and had not already had a revision procedure. This represented 9,125 cases from 102 hospitals. This all happened within 48 hours of the FSN being issued. For context, 11,965 of these were implanted if patients who had died or been revised were included.
In terms of the clinical impact, the NJR had first been asked to investigate use of high flex NexGen knees by a surgeon in 2014. Although the data did not meet the outlier threshold at that time, NJR did inform the MHRA because there appeared to be a particular mechanism of failure with these devices, namely tibial loosening. The MHRA followed its standard process of discussing the concerns with the manufacturer and the matter was closed since the data did not demonstrate a case to answer. NJR reported this again in 2021, by which time the data was more robust and the signal was stronger.
At the time for an implant to be rated 10A, which is a measure of implant success, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), a failure rate of 10% at 10 years was used. This has recently been changed to a failure rate of 5% at 10 years.
The failure rate of this implant combination at 10 years is 7%, which is still under the 10% threshold advocated by NICE. It is important that these patients remain under clinical and radiological review.
NJR has made no assessment of the financial impact of the NexGen family of knee implants.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 ensure that the 10 Year Health Plan supports people with (a) arthritis and (b) other long-term conditions.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The three shifts outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan will support people with long-term conditions, including those with arthritis, to better manage their condition and access services closer to home. For example, it will empower them to access their medical history and allow them to book and manage their appointments and medication.
In addition, by 2028/29, neighbourhood health teams will be organised around the needs of their patients. The plan will create joined-up working across hospitals and into community settings with multi-disciplinary teams who can provide wrap-around support services.
By 2030, one million patients with long-term conditions will be offered Personal Health Budgets, which will enable them to use National Health Service resources and determine the care that best suits their needs.
Patients will be able to self-refer to services where clinically appropriate through the My Specialist section on the NHS App. This will accelerate their access to treatment and support. The NHS App will provide access to advice, guidance, self-care support, and appointment management. Patients will be able to manage their care in one place, giving them direct access to and preference over the services they need.
As part of the NHS App, My Medicines will enable patients to manage their prescriptions, and My Health will enable patients to monitor their symptoms and bring all their data into one place.