Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of eligibility requirements for Employment Allowance relief on decisions by dental practices to maintain their NHS commitments.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
HM Treasury has provided funding to cover the additional cost of employer National Insurance contributions for public sector employers only. This is based on the Office for National Statistics definition of public sector organisations and does not include independent primary care contractors such as dentists.
We recognise this is disappointing, but we have had to take necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances. The National Health Service in England invests approximately £4 billion on dentistry every year, of which £3 billion is spent on primary care dentistry. NHS planning guidance is now published and sets out funding available to integrated care boards for 2025/2026.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of NHS dental practices expected to reduce their NHS activity below 50% in order to qualify for Employment Allowance relief.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
HM Treasury has provided funding to cover the additional cost of employer National Insurance contributions for public sector employers only. This is based on the Office for National Statistics definition of public sector organisations and does not include independent primary care contractors such as dentists.
We recognise this is disappointing, but we have had to take necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances. The National Health Service in England invests approximately £4 billion on dentistry every year, of which £3 billion is spent on primary care dentistry. NHS planning guidance is now published and sets out funding available to integrated care boards for 2025/2026.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he expects the revised NHS dental contract to be implemented.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to reforming the dental contract, but we need to take the time to get this right. There are no perfect payment models and careful consideration needs to be given to any potential changes to the complex dental system so that we deliver genuine improvements for patients and the profession. The Government’s ambition is to deliver fundamental contract reform before the end of this Parliament.
As a first step to reforming the dental contract, we are consulting on a package of changes to improve access to, and the quality of, National Health Service dentistry which will deliver better care for the diverse oral health needs of people across England. The consultation is accessible at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nhs-dentistry-contract-quality-and-payment-reforms
The consultation was launched on 8 July and will close on 19 August.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to conduct a review of the Carr-Hill formula in Primary Care Networks.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 25 June 2025, we announced that the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan would address the inequalities in general practice (GP) services across England. We know that the Carr-Hill formula is considered outdated and recognise the importance of ensuring funding for core services is distributed equitably between practices across the country.
The Government will review how health need is reflected in the Carr-Hill funding formula for GPs. Details of the review, including timeframes, will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
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 effectiveness of integrated care boards in delivering new (a) GP and (b) medical centres in Leicestershire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are best placed to understand the needs of their local population and to make decisions on new general practice (GP) surgeries based on those needs. ICBs’ annual commissioning plans must consider requirements for new practices, including those driven by population growth, contract expiries, or unplanned closures.
The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future. That is why we have set out our commitment to fix the front door to the National Health Service, for example through the £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund for upgrades to more than a thousand GP surgeries across England over this financial year.
The NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB has been allocated the following amounts from national capital programmes and operational capital for 2025/26:
- £14.8 million from the Constitutional Standards Recovery Fund;
- £9.3 million from the Estates Safety Fund;
- £1.8 million from the Primary Care Utilisation Fund; and
- £70.8 million in operational capital funding.
We will trial Neighbourhood Health Centres to bring together a range of services, ensuring healthcare is closer to home and patients receive the care they deserve.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse is for free prescriptions for people over the age of 60.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There were 781 million items with a combined total net ingredient cost (NIC) of £5.9 billion dispensed to patients aged 60 years old and over in 2024/2025.
National Health Service patients pay a fixed charge for each prescription item dispensed in primary care, unless they are exempt from prescription charges. All patients aged 60 years old and over are exempt so no prescription charges are collected from these patients.
The flat-rate NHS prescription charge is not related either to the cost of the item prescribed or to the cost to the NHS of dispensing it. As well as the NIC of drugs and appliances, the cost of medicines prescribed in the NHS include the dispensing fees and allowances paid to pharmacists and appliance contractors for the service they provide to the NHS.
To note, the NIC is the basic price of a drug excluding value-added tax. It does not take account of discounts, dispensing costs, fees or prescription charges income. The data is taken from supplementary data alongside official Prescription Cost Analysis statistics, for 2024/2025.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many permanent civil servants in his Department had their contract of employment terminated as a result of poor performance in the (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25 financial years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
During the period from the start of the 2022/23 financial year until the end of the 2024/25 financial year, the Department has dismissed five individuals for poor performance. We are unable to provide further information about specific years due to the low numbers involved in each year, which could lead to the identification of individuals.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what role the voluntary and community sector will have in delivering the Neighbourhood Cancer Care model in the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan will seek to foster improved collaboration with the voluntary and community sector. We are committed to moving towards a Neighbourhood Health Service, with more care delivered locally to create healthier communities, spot problems earlier, and to support people to stay healthier and maintain their independence for longer.
Neighbourhood Health Guidelines have been published alongside the 2025/26 NHS Operational Planning Guidance, and the 2025/26 Better Care Fund policy framework, to help integrated care boards, local authorities, and health and care providers to continue to progress neighbourhood health in 2025/26, in advance of the publication of the 10-Year Health Plan. NHS England has also recently published case studies alongside this, setting out examples of existing good practices, on 5 March 2025. The full vision for the health system will be set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The National Cancer Plan will be published later this year, following the 10-Year Health Plan.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
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 (a) reduce inequalities in cancer care and (b) improve outcomes for underserved communities through the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing inequalities in cancer diagnosis, care, and outcomes is a key priority for the National Cancer Plan. The plan will look at targeted improvements needed across different cancer types to reduce disparities in cancer survival, and will develop interventions to tackle these. This includes looking at protected characteristics, as well as inequalities related to socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and geographic location.
We are committed to engaging with patient groups and all communities to make sure that we hear and learn from different voices to shape the long-term vision for cancer. We are also working closely with charities who focus on tackling health inequalities to develop the plan, which will be published later this year.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans establish a governance framework for (a) monitoring and (b) ensuring accountability in the delivery of the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Governance mechanisms for monitoring and ensuring accountability for delivery will be established as part of the development of the National Cancer Plan, which will be published later this year.