Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of increasing (a) employer National Insurance Contributions and (b) the National Minimum Wage on pharmacies in (i) Kent and (ii) Weald of Kent constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We took the necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement.
The Department considered the increases to employer National Insurance and the National Living Wage as part of the funding arrangements for community pharmacy in 2024/25 and 2025/26. We have increased funding for community pharmacy to £3.073 billion from April 2025. This represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service, at over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26. This shows a first step in delivering stability for the future as well as a commitment to rebuilding the sector.
Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of increasing (a) employer National Insurance Contributions and the (b) National Minimum Wage on dental practices in (i) Kent and (ii) Weald of Kent constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have made the necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise and National Minimum Wage rise was implemented in April 2025.
The National Health Service’s planning guidance for 2025/26 has now been published, and sets out the funding available to integrated care boards (ICBs), including the dental ringfence. Dental practices are businesses and decide how they operate themselves, providing they remain compliant with the appropriate regulations. It is up to dental practices to set employee pay and conditions.
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.
Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of increasing (a) employer National Insurance Contributions and (b) the National Minimum Wage on GP practices in (i) Kent and (ii) Weald of Kent constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have made the necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise and National Minimum Wage rise was implemented in April 2025.
General practices (GPs) are valued independent contractors who provide over £13 billion worth of National Health Services. Every year we consult with the profession about what services GPs provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract, taking account of the cost of delivering services.
We are investing an additional £889 million into GPs to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes.
Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of increasing (a) employer National Insurance Contributions and (b) the National Minimum Wage on care homes in (i) Kent and (ii) Weald of Kent constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has considered the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process in 2024.
To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government has made available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.
The additional funding available to Kent in 2025/26 means that they have seen an increase to their core spending power of up to 7% in cash terms.
Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of food under the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme is procured from British farms.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme sources the fruit and vegetables used by the scheme from a number of different countries. 18.9% of the produce used by the scheme is sourced from the United Kingdom, and this is the highest proportion of any country supplying produce to the scheme.